Why Is It So Difficult To See Exoplanets Directly In An Image? The major problem astronomers face in trying to directly image exoplanets is that the stars they orbit are millions of times brighter than their planets. Any light reflected off of the planet or heat radiation from the planet itself is drowned out by
Do All Planetary Systems Look The Same As Our Own? Do all planetary systems look the same as our own? No. Among the thousands of other planetary systems we have observed so far, systems have evolved along different evolutionary paths. Some have gas giant planets much closer to the Sun, for example. Are there solar
Why Were Hot Jupiters Initially Puzzling To Astronomers? Giant alien planets known as “hot Jupiters” orbit their stars much closer than Mercury does the sun. But the mystery of the origins of hot Jupiters deepened when astronomers recently discovered the scorching orbits of these worlds are often bizarrely skewed, tilted when compared with the equators
How Many Extrasolar Planets Are There? To date, more than 4,000 exoplanets have been discovered and are considered “confirmed.” However, there are thousands of other “candidate” exoplanet detections that require further observations in order to say for sure whether or not the exoplanet is real. Are extrasolar planets rare? It’s pretty rare for astronomers to
What Are The 4 Classifications Of Exoplanets? So far scientists have categorized exoplanets into the following types: Gas giant, Neptunian, super-Earth and terrestrial. What are the 4 main criteria used to identify a planet? In its declaration the IAU defined a planet as an object which 1) orbits the Sun, 2) is massive enough to