astronomy week 2 hunting for planets lesson
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School
University of the Cumberlands *
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Course
101
Subject
Astronomy
Date
Dec 6, 2023
Type
docx
Pages
6
Uploaded by j.smith1430
The activity questions are shown in bold and your answers are presented in order below.
Hunting for planets
in Is there life in space?
1: In the model, how did you change the light intensity of the star?
By making the star closer to the planet
2: Which planet would be most easily detected with the light-intensity method of planet hunting?
Planet C
3: Explain your answer.
because it is larger
4: How certain are you about your claim based on your explanation?
(3)
5: Explain what influenced your certainty rating.
moving the telescope closer makes the image more visible so a larger planet would be easier to see.
6:
Take a snapshot showing a large planet that has no dimming effect on its star.
7: How did you make a large planet undetectable with the transit method?
8:
Take a snapshot that shows a small planet that has some dimming effect on its star.
9: How did you make a small planet detectable by the transit method?
The dimming effect isn't very large (the scale on the graph shows that the topmost and bottommost numbers are the same, meaning that the scale is very small), but it is detectable because the telescope can see that the planet crosses in front of the star.
10: A scientist measures the light from a star over two weeks (14 days) and obtains the graph shown below.The scientist concludes that there is not a planet around the star. Do you agree with the scientist?
yes
11: Explain your answer.
Because there are no activity.
12: How certain are you about your claim based on your explanation?
(2)
13: Explain what influenced your certainty rating.
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I am not sure because when using the graph the mass has to increase alot to show any changes on the graph
14: Is it possible to detect a really small planet when there is a lot of noise in the data?
no
15: Explain your answer.
When there is a lot of noise, the signal from a small planet can be obscured. This makes it very difficult to find a small planet when there is a lot of noise.
16: Most of the planets that have been discovered using the transit method have had large diameters. Why?
If the planets are small and orbiting at a steep angle, the telescope might not detect them.
17: Based on the graph, could there be a planet orbiting this star?
I'm not sure if there is a planet there.
18: Explain your answer. What more information would you want to be sure of your answer?
If the planet's orbiting angle is not very close to the same plane as the telescope, the planet's transit will not be detected by the telescope.
19: Based on the graph, could there be a planet orbiting this star?
No. It's just noise.
20: Explain your answer. What more information would you want to be sure of your answer?
It does not show a pattern of wavelengths.
21: A star was picked at random and light intensity was measured over a long period of time. The resulting light intensity graph is shown below. Could there be a planet orbiting this star?
yes
22: Explain your answer.
planets cause more dimming of the star as they pass it. They block more of the star, so the dimming effect
is larger. Smaller planets cause smaller dimming so this could be a very small planet
23: How certain are you about your claim based on your explanation?
(3)
24: Explain what influenced your certainty rating.
It takes a larger planet to show much movement on the graphs
25: Which star did you get?
HAS954
26: Do you think that there is a planet orbiting your star?
yes
27:
Take a snapshot to support your conclusions.
28: Explain your answer. Note that you should explain why you think there is or is not a planet! Don't just refer to the snapshot!
graph shows a regular up and down signal, indicating that the star is moving toward and away from the telescope.
29: How certain are you about your claim based on your explanation?
(3)
30: Explain what influenced your certainty rating.
the wavelengths showed a pattern that indicated that there is a planet there
31: Describe an example in which you were very certain from the graphs how the solar system was set up and why you were certain.
The ones that had very large wavelengths without noise were easy to detect
32: Describe an example in which you were uncertain from the graphs how the solar system was set up and why you were uncertain.
the graphs with noise or very little movement was hard to decide.
33: How successful were you in detecting others' planet setups? What made it difficult?
if it was noise or actual movement from a planet
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