Exoplanets

An exoplanet is a planet that orbits around another sun (obviously outside our solar system). In this post, we will explore the nature of exoplanets, where to find them and possible exoplanets that have the ability to harbor carbon-based life forms. 

What are exoplanets like? well, exoplanets are pretty much like any other planet, but with a different star that they orbit. Take Proxima Centauri b for example. It orbits the closest star to our sun, Proxima Centauri. Coincidentally, it orbits in the "Goldilocks Zone', which is the zone in which planets can be habitable for humans. It is in the place at which the temperature is just right to sustain human life, as well as support liquid water. So, if in the far, far future we are able to become an intergalactic species, this is probably going to be the first exoplanet we try to colonize. How lucky is it that the nearest star and exoplanet to us is potentially habitable? Pretty damn lucky if you ask me.

Fig. 1 Size Difference

To detect and look for exoplanets, many ways are used. One of these ways is to look for "wobbly" stars. When a planet orbits its mother star, it can cause the star to orbit slightly off-center, making it appear "wobbly" to an observer. However, only large planets have been found this way, as small planets such as Earth make the mother star wobble very little as compared to massive planets like Jupiter. Therefore, another way of detecting smaller exoplanets has to exist, because we obviously found smaller exoplanets.

Perhaps one of the best astronomical instruments to date ever made, the Kepler space telescope has been launched in 2009 with the purpose of finding potentially habitable planets with a size comparable to Earth. This telescope used something called the transit method, which works in the following way: When a planet passes in front of its star, it blocks out a small amount of the star's light. Each time it does this it is called a transit. This means that a star will appear very slightly less bright when the planet passes in front of it. Astronomers can witness the brightness change, and hence using some insane mathematics can deduce the size of the planet. Furthermore, by measuring the time between the transits, they can also find out the distance of the planet from the sun, to see if it is habitable by carbon life forms. 

So far, over a THOUSAND exoplanets have been found, with distances from our sun ranging from 4 light-years to 2,450 light-years. Exoplanets can potentially be the future, as one day our Earth and even solar system will become inhabitable. Although this is in the very, very distant future, it's coming nevertheless. Hopefully, we discover some efficient ways of space travel and don't all die.

So what do you all think about Exoplanets and the potential of living on one someday? Let me know in the comments! 

Learn more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUU0-ZpFoK4