Tuesday, October 17th

•  HW #3 is due on Thursday in class.

•  Exam I Grades have been posted on ELMS, and returned
in section.
•  Today we will discuss:
Ø Exoplanet atmospheres.
Ø Are we alone?
Ø Nature of light.
Exam I Grades
Mean = 70
Highest = 98
Lowest = 18
Correc&on:    Which  of  the  following  is  (are)  a  
consequence  of  the  Earth’s  rota8on  on  its  axis?  
A.  Different  constella8ons  to  
be  visible  at  different  8mes  
of  year  
B.  The  Sun  appears  to  move  
along  the  eclip8c  
C.  non-­‐circumpolar  stars  rise  
in  the  East  and  set  in  the  
West  
D.  All  of  the  above  
E.  Only  answers  A  and  B  

Hint: Earth rotates on its axis, and

revolves around the Sun.
Our view from College Park
•  Stars near the north celestial pole never set below the
horizon (called “circumpolar stars”).
•  We cannot see stars near the south celestial pole.
•  All other stars (and Sun, Moon, planets) rise in east and
set in west.

A circumpolar
star never sets

This star Your

never rises horizon
Our view from College Park
•  Stars near the north celestial pole never set below the
horizon (called “circumpolar stars”).
•  We cannot see stars near the south celestial pole.
•  All other stars (and Sun, Moon, planets) rise in east and
set in west.

What is this?
Our view from College Park
•  Stars near the north celestial pole never set below the
horizon (called “circumpolar stars”).
•  We cannot see stars near the south celestial pole.
•  All other stars (and Sun, Moon, planets) rise in east and
set in west.

What is its
altitude in the
sky from
College Park?
Solstices and equinoxes recognized by
Sun’s path:
•  Summer solstice: highest
path, rise and set at most
extreme north of due east.
•  Winter solstice: lowest
path, rise and set at most
extreme south of due east.
•  Equinoxes: Sun rises
precisely due east and
sets precisely due west.
Earth’s Yearly Motion

•  Earth orbits the Sun (revolves around our star) once every
year.
The night sky varies as Earth orbits.
•  As the Earth orbits the Sun, the Sun appears to move
east through different constellations.
A large ground-based telescope for
observing radio waves would:  
A.  Be  a  powerful  instrument  
to  observe  short  
wavelength  radia8on   Hint:
B.  Be  a  powerful  instrument  
because  of  its  angular  
resolu8on  
C.  Be  worthless  since  radio  
waves  are  not  light  waves  
D.  Be  too  dangerous,  since  
radio  waves  are  very  high  
energy  light  waves  
Which  of  the  following  varies  inversely  with  
distance  
A.  The  intensity  of  sunlight  
B.  Angular  momentum  
C.  Angle  of  parallax  
D.  Gravita8onal  force  
E.  Period  of  a  planet’s  orbit  
around  the  Sun.  

Hint:
A.  Intensity ~ 1/d2
B.  Angular momentum ~ d
C.  Angle of parallax ~ 1/d
D.  Gravitational force ~ 1/d2
E.  P2 ~ d3
How many hours of sunlight at South Pole today?

•  Where is sunlight most direct?

Transit Method

•  A transit is when a planet crosses in front of a star.

•  The resulting eclipse reduces the star’s apparent
brightness and tells us the planet’s radius.
Extra  Credit:  We  said  last  lecture  that  the  transit  method  
gives  you  the  radius  of  the  exoplanet  rela8ve  to  its  star  from  
the  frac8on  of  starlight  blocked.    What  else  can  you  
determine  about  the  exoplanet  from  this  method?    
A.  From  the  period  of  the  transits  (the  8me  in  which  
they  repeat)  we  can  measure  the  mass  of  the  
exoplanet  using  the  Universal  Law  of  Gravita8on.  
B.  From  the  period  of  the  transits  (the  8me  in  which  
they  repeat)  we  can  measure  the  orbital  
separa8on  of  the  exoplanet  using  Newton’s  form  
of  Kepler’s  Third  Law.  
C.  From  the  frac8on  of  starlight  blocked,  we  can  
determine  the  density  of  the  exoplanet  using  the  
law  of  refrac8on.  
D.  From  the  frac8on  of  starlight  blocked,  we  can  
determine  the  albedo  of  the  planet  using  the  law  
of  reflec8on.  
 Gravitational Waves in the News Again!

Coulter et al. 2017

Electromagnetic counterpart detected in gamma-rays, X-rays, UV,

optical, infrared, and radio from a galaxy 130 million light-years away.
Bloom & Sigurdssen 2017
1 in 5 Sun-like Star’s has an Earth Size
Planet in the Habitable Zone!
That is 40 billion habitable Earths in our galaxy alone!
How many Earths?
Number has doubled in last year…
Do these Earth-like worlds have life?
•  These planets may have liquid water, but a surer sign that
they also have life would show up in the atmosphere.
•  Atmospheric oxygen on Earth is a direct result of life
(photosynthesis).
Transits allow studies of the atmosphere that are not
possible for non-transiting planets

Secondary Eclipse
See thermal radiation and
reflected light from planet
disappear and
reappear

Primary Eclipse

See radiation from star transmitted

through the planet’s atmosphere
Exoplanet Atmospheres

•  Change in spectrum during a transit tells us about a planet’s

atmosphere.
•  Look for more of this in the future!
Exoplanet Atmospheres
•  The spectrum of the planet can be used to determine the
temperature and composition of the planet’s atmosphere.

•  This has been done in the infrared using the NASA space
telescopes HST and Spitzer for a few ‘’hot Jupiters”.

•  The NASA James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), to be

launched in 2018, will be able to measure the “transmission
spectrum” of super Earths (1-10 times the mass of the
Earth).
 Planets Orbiting Two Stars
•  Approximately half the
stars in the Milky Way
come in pairs.
•  If such systems are able to
host planets, it increases
the number of exoplanets
we might find.
•  Kepler has discovered 6
planets in 5 binary stellar
systems.
The View from “Tatooine”

•  Is science catching up with science fiction?

•  All of the circumbinary planets discovered so far have been
hot Jupiters—no solid surfaces.
•  Could be the view from a moon of one of these planets.
How many civilizations are out there?
The Drake Equation
Number of civilizations with whom we could
potentially communicate

= NHP × flife × fciv × fnow

NHP = total number of habitable planets in galaxy.

flife = fraction of habitable planets with life.
fciv = fraction of life-bearing planets with civilization at
some time.
fnow = fraction of civilizations around now.
We do not know the values for the Drake
equation
•  Total # of habitable planets?
•  Probably hundreds of billions.
•  Fraction of habitable planets with life?
•  ??? (Close to 0? Close to 1?)
•  Fraction of life-bearing planets with civilization at
some time?
•  ??? (took 4 billion years on Earth).
•  Fraction of civilizations around now?
•  ??? (depends on whether civilizations can survive long-term).
Fermi’s Paradox: where are the aliens?
•  Plausible arguments suggest that civilizations should be
common. For example, even if only one in a million stars
gets a civilization at some time ⇒ 100,000 civilizations.
•  So why we haven’t we detected them?
Possible solutions to the paradox
1.  We are alone: life/civilization is much rarer than we
might have guessed.
•  Our own planet/civilization looks all the more precious…
Possible solutions to the paradox
2.  Civilizations are common, but interstellar travel is not
because…
•  Interstellar travel is more difficult than we think.
•  The desire to explore is rare.
•  Civilizations destroy themselves before achieving interstellar travel.

These are all possibilities, but not very appealing…

With  our  current  technology,  how  long  would  
it  take  us  to  travel  to  the  nearest  star?  
A.  1  year.  
B.  100  years.  
C.  1000  years.  
D.  100,000  years.  
Difficulties of Interstellar Travel

•  Current spacecraft would take 100,000 years to reach the

nearest stars.
•  Far more efficient engines are needed.
•  Energy requirements are enormous.
•  Ordinary interstellar particles could damage spacecraft at high
speeds.
Possible solutions to the paradox
3.  There IS a galactic civilization…
… and some day we’ll meet them.
Want to learn more?
•  Stay updated:
•  exoplanets.org
•  exoplanets.eu
•  kepler.nasa.gov (direct news on the Kepler mission)
•  astrobites.com (187 articles on exoplanets and counting!)
•  Exoplanet app available from iTunes

•  Get involved yourself:

•  planethunters.org (citizen science with Kepler data)
Electromagnetic Radiation
•  aka Light
•  Properties of Light are simultaneously wave-like AND
particle-like

Ø  Sometimes it behaves like ripples on a pond.

Ø  Sometimes it behaves like billiard balls.

•  Called the ``wave-particle’’ duality in quantum mechanics.

Particles of Light
•  Particles of light are called photons.
•  Each photon has a wavelength and frequency.
•  The energy of the photon depends on its frequency.

hc
E = hf =
λ
 Which  of  these  waves  of  light  has  the  highest  
energy?  
A.  (a)  
B.  (b)  
C.  (c)  

(a)

(b)

(c)
•  Electromagnetic waves
exist far beyond the
visible band: from radio
to gamma rays.

•  The energy of the

photon depends on the
frequency (or
wavelength).

hc
E = hf =
λ
How Do Light and Matter Interact?
•  Emission
•  Absorption
•  Transmission:
Ø  Transparent objects transmit light.
Ø  Opaque objects block (absorb) light.
•  Reflection or scattering.
 Reflection
Reflection and Scattering
and Scattering

Mirror reflects light in a Movie screen scatters light

particular direction. in all directions.
Interactions between light and matter
determine the appearance of everything
around us.
What  light  do  we  see  when  we  look  at  the  
Moon?  
A.  Reflected  light.  
B.  ScaYered  light.  
C.  EmiYed  light.  
D.  TransmiYed  light.  
What  light  do  we  observe  from  a  planet  in  the  
infrared?  
A.  Reflected  light.  
B.  ScaYered  light.  
C.  EmiYed  light.  
D.  TransmiYed  light.  
Thermal Radiation
•  Nearly all large, dense objects emit thermal radiation,
including stars, planets, and you.

•  An object’s thermal radiation spectrum depends on only

on property: its temperature.
Continuous Spectrum

•  The spectrum of a common (incandescent) light bulb

spans all visible wavelengths, without interruption.
Thermal Radiation
Properties of Thermal Radiation
•  Hotter objects emit more light at all frequencies per unit
area.
•  Hotter objects emit photons with a higher average energy.
Properties of Thermal Radiation
•  The spectrum peaks at

2.898 ×10 −3 m K
λ peak = . Wien’s law
Peak T
wavelength
in meters Temperature in
degrees Kelvin

•  The higher the temperature, the shorter the peak

wavelength; shorter wavelength means higher photon
energy.
Properties of Thermal Radiation
•  The spectrum peaks at

2.898 ×10 −3 m K
λ peak = . Wien’s law
Peak T
wavelength
in meters Temperature in
degrees Kelvin

•  The higher the temperature, the shorter the peak

wavelength; shorter wavelength means higher photon
energy.
Emission Line Spectrum

•  Low-density gas clouds emit light only at specific

wavelengths that depend on their composition and
temperature, producing bright emission-line spectra.
Chemical Fingerprints

•  Each type of atom (or ion or molecule) has a unique

spectral fingerprint.
•  Observing these fingerprints in a spectrum tells us which
species are present in the gas clouds.
Chemical Fingerprints

•  Observing the fingerprints in a spectrum tells us which

kinds of atoms are present.