The Solar System

Interplanetary Matter, the Birth

of the Planets and Exoplanets

Chapter 4

Reading assignment: Chapter 4

 The structure of the Solar System
Planets, satellites (moons),
dwarf planets, asteroids,
comets are part of the solar
system
The Asteroid belt, the Kuiper
belt and the Oort cloud are
also part of the structure of the
solar system

Kuiper belt
• A region of the solar system
located between 30-50 AU
from the Sun
• Bodies in the Kuiper belt are
composed of “ices”, mainly
methane, ammonia and water
ices.
• Pluto, Eris, Makemake and
Haumea are examples of
Kuiper belt objects
 The structure of the inner Solar System
Ceres (Diameter ~ 940
km) and Vesta
(Diameter ~ 500 km)
are the largest bodies in
the Asteroid belt.
Ceres has been
reclassified as a dwarf
planet.

The conditions
established by the
International
Astronomical Union
(IAU) to classify a
body as a planet are:
 It must clear its
orbit of small bodies
 It has a large mass
that collapsed into a
spherical shape
 Comets
Astronomer Fred Whipple named them “Dirty snowballs” – they are composed
of dust and rock in methane, ammonia and water ices
The light we received from a comet comes from two sources: reflected light from the Sun and
light emitted from the gas released by the comet, being ionized and excited by UV emission
from the Sun.
Parts of a comet:
• Nucleus
• Coma
• Hydrogen envelope
• Ion (or gas) and dust tails

• The nucleus is the solid part of the

comet. The size of the nucleus is
just a few km in diameter.
Its diameter too small to be
resolved with telescopes; its is
beyond the resolution of a
telescope

• The nucleus has been imaged by

spacecraft only Halley’s Comet in 1986

•The coma can measure up to

100,000 km in diameter
The highly eccentric elliptical orbits of most comet take them far beyond the orbit of Pluto

• Long period comets take up to 1 million years to orbit the Sun!

• These comets originate in the Oort cloud.
The orientation of their orbits are random respect to the plane of the ecliptic

• Short period comets orbit the Sun in 200 years or less (e.g. Halley’s
comet, period ~ 76 years)
• The orientation of their orbits are close to the ecliptic plane
• Short period comets may have originated in the Kuiper belt
• Kuiper belt comets get “kicked” into an eccentric orbit, bringing
them into the inner part of the solar system

The Oort cloud: a

reservoir of
millions or
perhaps billions of
comets and icy
type of objects
located at a
distance of about
50,000 to 200,000
AU from the Sun
The development of the gas and dust tails as
the comet approaches the Sun
When the comet begin
approaching the Sun,
the ices sublimate and
release gas and dust
from the nucleus
 The dust forms the
dust tail which point in
the general direction of
the trajectory of the
comet.
 The gas points in
direction opposite to the
Sun and forms the gas
or ion tail
Comet Hale-Bopp (1997) dust and gas tails
A recent comet: Comet McNaught 2007
Images of comet C/2012 S1 ISON
It reached the closest distance from the Sun , about 1 solar diameter on
November 28, 2013 (Thanksgiving day)
An animation of comet ISON passing close to the Sun on Nov.-
Dec. 2013 (Images SOHO Spacecraft).
The nucleus did not survive the encounter. The intense heat of the
Sun broke the nucleus in many small pieces. The pieces melted and
the gasses sublimated.
 The nucleus of a comet
The first image of the
nucleus of comet
Halley was obtained by
the Giotto spacecraft in
1986 at a distance of
about 400 km.
Notice the jets coming
out of the nucleus

To the right, a diagram

of Halley’s comet
nucleus showing its
size and structure
Images of comet 67P (C-G) (Churyumov-Gerasimenko) taken by the Rosetta spacecraft

in 2014-2015.
The Rosetta spacecraft was the first spacecraft to enter orbit around a comet. It arrived on Sept. 10 th 2014.
Size of the comet are 4.1 x 4.3 km. Orbital period 6.44 years

A comparison of the size of comet 67P (C-G) with downtown Los Angeles
 Recent images of comet 67P C-G taken by the Rosetta
spacecraft in 2015
The spacecraft carried a lander. The lander crash-landed on
the surface of the comet on Sept. 30, 2016

Details of the surface

Image taken from a An outburst of activity showing “Sinkholes”.
distance of 150 km
“Sinkholes” form from
showing the jets
the collapse of material
after ices sublimated
Meteoroid, Meteor and Meteorite Castor and Pollux
(The Twins,
Meteoroid – interplanetary rocky material smaller Gemini
constellation)
than 100m (down to grain size).
•It is called a meteor when it enter and burns in the Meteor
Earth’s atmosphere radiant
(Geminids
•If some material survives the entry and makes it to meteor
the ground, it is called a meteorite shower)

Meteor showers
Most meteor showers are the result of the Earth passing
through the orbit of a comet which has left debris along its
path. They take the name of the constellation were the
radiant seems to be located

Some 2020 Meteor showers:

Perseids ( 109P/Swift-Tuttle) - August 12-13 about 90/hour
Orionids (Halley’s comet) – Oct 21-22 (after midnight in the
Eastern sky, only 20/hour)
Leonids (Comet Tempel_Tuttle) – Nov 17-18 (after midnight
in the Eastern sky, only 20/hour)
Geminids (Phaethon object) – December 13-14
Probably one of the best for 2020, predicted about 120
meteor/hour). The Moon phase will be New Moon. Good
for observing the meteor shower.
Types of meteorites
 Stony. This are the most common meteorites
 Iron-Nickel. Easy to find using metal detectors
An iron-nickel meteorite is a fragment of a larger body. The body was
large enough to generate internal heat and went through the
differentiation process. Heavier material (iron, nickel) sunk to the core.
Collisions broke the large body, exposed the central part (core) from
which the smaller pieces came from.

 Stony-Iron
 A stony meteorite
Usually covered by a dark crust, created by the melting of the
surface during the entry through the atmosphere
A iron-nickel meteorite
The Windmanstatten pattern in the etched
slice of an iron-nickel meteorite
An example of slice of a pallasite
meteorite (olivine crystals)
Some meteorites can be large
The “Hoba” iron-nickel meteorite, in Namibia, Africa. Estimated
mass about 60 tons. Composition, 80% Fe and 16% Ni
Known meteorite impact craters sites
Meteoroids
Most meteoroids are rocky,. A small fraction are mainly iron and nickel
Some contain carbonaceous material - rich in organic material (amino acids).
This organic material is formed in interstellar space
Meteoroids are old - 4.5 billion years based on carbon dating. Most were
formed when the solar system formed
•The Barringer Crater.
Usually known as the
“meteor” crater near
Winslow, AZ
• One of the best
preserved craters
• Formed from the impact
of a 50 m body weighing
200,000 tons!
• Diameter of crater 1.2
km
• Ratio size crater/size
impacting body = 24
•Age, around 25,000 years
 Asteroids - rocks with sizes greater than 100m across
•Most asteroids are in orbit around the Sun in what it is called the Asteroid belt between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter
• About 2000 asteroids have orbits that cross Earth’s path. Called NEO, Near Earth Objects.
• Some of these may come at distances < 0.05 AU from the Earth. The are called PHA’s
(Potentially Hazardous Asteroids)
Some of the more recent collisions

• Extinction of the Dinosaurs

A 10-15 km size asteroid that collided about 65 millions years ago in
Chicxulub, in the Yucatan peninsula (Mexico).
It left a crater about 180 Km diameter
A layer of clay enriched in iridium found in many part of the world fits the
age of the impact.
A cloud of dust rich in iridium circled the Earth. Iridium is found in
meteorites and asteroids
The cloud of dust and the smoke of fires generated by the impact may
have shrouded the planet for a few years, extinguishing the Sun’s rays,
killing plants and disrupting the food chain

• The Tunguska event in 1908 in Siberia is one of the most recent. The
body (30m size) exploded several km above the surface. It did not create a
crater, just a depression.

• The most recent: The Chelyabink event. Fell in Russia on February 15,
2013. The size was about 17-20 m. It exploded at an altitude of several
kilometers and generated a shock wave that broke windows and took down
part of a building wall. A few pieces were recovered.

Check the spaceweather.com

website for a list of asteroids (called PHAs) coming close to the Earth!
 Asteroids range in size from 100m to ~1000km
They are composed of carbon,
iron and other rocky material.

The Asteroid belt is a group of asteriods that

appear to have never joined to make a
planet (as opposed to having once been a
planet that was later destroyed).
Some of the evidence is this:
•The total mass of all the asteroids is too small
to be a planet
•They have different chemical compositions

The reason for the asteroid belt is the presence of Jupiter...

Jupiter may have prevented the formation of
a body at the distance from the Sun where the
Asteroid belt is located.
The orbital period of those small bodies may have a
resonance with the orbital period of Jupiter. There are
gaps in the asteroid belt at several distances from the Sun
where the orbital period is a fraction of Jupiter orbital period
(1/3, 2/5, 1/2…)
 Images of asteroids
(All the images were taken by spacecrafts)
More images of several asteroids taken by spacecrafts
The image of Vesta (Diameter 525 km, second largest asteroid) was taken by the
Dawn spacecraft mission in 2011. Vesta has a rocky composition

Comparison of
sizes of different
asteroids
 The best images of the dwarf planet (asteroid) Ceres
Ceres diameter is 950 km. Until it was reclassified as a dwarf planet it was
considered the largest asteroid.
Composition: rock and ices
Best image by Hubble Space Telescope A better image taken by the Dawn spacecraft (2015)
The best high resolution picture released from Occator
crater and the bright spot in Ceres (Dawn spacecraft).
(The Dawn spacecraft is in orbit around Ceres)
 Ceres bright spot, a close-up.
Image taken by the Dawn spacecraft in February of 2016 from a distance of 385 km

The bright spot is

located in the center of
the Occator crater.
The close-up shows a
central dome crossed
by linear features and
fractures
The bright area may be
a crust of salt marking
the location of a salty
ocean under the surface
that broke through the
central part of the
crater.
The low density of
Ceres (2.26 g/cm3)
suggest the presence of
a substantial amount of
water
4.3 The Formation of the Solar System
 Formation of the Solar System
Any theory to describe the formation of our Solar
System must be consistent with these facts:

1. Each planet is isolated in space.

2. The orbits are nearly circular.
3. The orbits of the planets all lie in roughly the same plane.
4. The direction the planets orbit around the Sun is the
same as the Sun’s rotation on its axis
(Counterclockwise as viewed from Earth north pole).

5. The direction most planets rotate on their axes is the

same as that for the Sun.

6. The direction of the planetary satellites’ orbits is the

same as that of the planet’s rotation.
7. The terrestrial and Jovian planets have different
characteristics
8. Asteroids are different from both types of planets.
9. The Kuiper belt is a collections of asteroid-size bodies
orbiting the Sun beyond the orbit of Neptune. Their
composition is mainly ices
10. The Oort cloud comets are primitive, icy fragments. They do
not orbit the Sun in the plane of the ecliptic. The Oort cloud
is located around 50,000 AU
 But there are some exceptions
• Venus rotates backwards (Rotational axis tilted close to 179 degrees)
• Uranus rotates on its side (Rotational axis tilted close to 98 degrees)
• Most small satellites or moons do not share the orbital plane of the planet
• Earth is the only terrestrial planet with a large satellite or moon
• Pluto has an inclined orbit respect to the orbital plane of the planets
A model for the formation of the solar system has to account for:
 Different composition of planets (rocky, gaseous, icy)
 Existence of many asteroids and comets
The nebular hypothesis (and the rejected collision theory)
 The idea that the solar system was born from the collapse of a cloud of dust and gas
for proposed by Immanuel Kant (1755) and by Pierre Simon Laplace (40 years later).
 During the first part of the 20th century, some proposed that the solar system was the
result of a near collision of the Sun with another star. Planets formed from debris of
the collision. But we know now that collision (or near collisions) between two stars
are very, very rare.
 Considering that collision are rare, the proposed idea of the collision may explain a
unique event on how our planetary system formed but not how other planetary
systems formed.
 During the rest of the 20th century, new ideas and theories about the formation of
stars (and possible planets) made this collision theory obsolete and was discarded
 In 1994, the first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi was discovered (Exoplanets: planets orbiting
other stars)
 Many more planets have been found so far in the solar neighborhood ( close to 2000
confirmed and more than 3000 that still need confiramtion. It is clear now that
formation of planets is not a rare event.
 Any theory about the formation of planetary system must explain the formation of
planets, not as a single, unique and rare event but more like a common event in a
galaxy
 Nebular Theory for Solar System formation
Our Sun and the planets originated from the collapse of an interstellar
cloud of dust and gas (nebula)
• Normally the gas and dust does not collapse by itself.
But a pressure wave generated from a supernova
explosion or a density wave in the galaxy may
compress the cloud and trigger the collapse.
• After that, the cloud begin contracting under its own
gravity; it develops a disk (Protoplanetary disk). The
Sun (or a star) is formed at the center.
• The cloud starts to spin and the smaller it contracts,
the faster it spins.
The reason for that is:

Conservation of angular momentum

The cloud forms a flattened disk (solar nebula).
Why they form a flattened disk?
“Centrifugal” forces perpendicular to the rotational
axis provide a push outward that resist the contraction.
The forces in the direction of the rotational axis pointing
away from the center are small . The gravitational forces
along the rotational axis are not opposed by any other forces
 How a flattened protoplanetary disk forms

In addition to the forces

involved (gravitational
and “centrifugal” forces), Slow rotation
collisions of particles that
crosses the disk will bring
those particles to an orbit
contained in the plane of
the disk

Gravitational
Gravitational force
force
“Centrifugal”
force

Fast rotation
Conservation of Angular Momentum

Angular momentum  mass  velocity  radius

Conservation of angular momentum in a skater: The

rotational speed increases when she bring her arms inside
 Angular Momentum
 Objects rotating around a point have angular momentum.
 Consider a simple case, a small sphere orbiting a larger mass
L=mxvxr
L :angular momentum of the small sphere
m: mass of small sphere
v: velocity of the small sphere
r :separation between the small sphere and the larger object
Conservation of angular momentum  if r changes, v must change
(ice skaters)
But the value of L remains constant
 Example: If r decreases to one half, v must increase by a factor of
two to keep the value of L constant
L=mxvxr L = m x 2v x r/2
 We’ve seen these disks around other young stars!

A classic example is the star Beta Pictoris and its protoplanetary

disk

Beta Pictoris is about 50 light-years away. The disk is about 1000 AU across. The
star is about 100 millions years old.
It is going through the same process that the Sun went 4.6 billions years ago
Condensation Theory for Planet Formation
• The gas in the flattened nebula would never eventually clump together to
form planets.
• However, the dust grains that are part of the cloud provide a way to clump
the material together and form nucleus of condensation. Dust grains are just a
few micrometer in size but they are the key for the process of condensing into
bigger clumps

Interstellar dust (grain-size particles) lies between stars – These dust grains form from
the material ejected from stars at the end of the life of the stars. Low mass stars eject
part of the material and may form a planetary nebula that expand and contaminate the
interstellar medium. Large mass stars will explode as a supernova . The material ejected
will contaminate the interstellar medium with heavy element from which the grains
form.
These dust grains form condensation nuclei - other
atoms attach to them to start the “collapsing” process
to which form smaller bodies called planetesimals.
Planetesimals collide and stick together and form
bigger bodies called protoplanets and finally form
planets

Dark cloud of dust

Barnard 86
 The Eagle nebula (M16) in visible light

 The new stars being

formed and the
associated protoplanetary
disk (From which new
planets may form) reside
inside of a cloud of dust
and gas.
 Dust absorb the visible
light coming from the
stars in formation so it is
not possible to see them
in visible light
(wavelengths blue to red)

(NASA Hubble telescope images)

 The Eagle nebula in IR

But taking
images in IR
light reveal the
presence of
these stars

(NASA Hubble
telescope images)
A comparison of the Eagle nebula in visible and IR light
The image in IR reveal the presence of stars inside and behind
the nebula
(NASA Hubble telescope images)
What happened next…..
• Solar nebula contracts and flattens into a disk.
• Condensation nuclei form clumps that grow
into moon-size planetesimals.

• Planetesimals collide, stick together and grow.

• Growing planetesimals will form the planets

over about 100 million years.

• The more massive proto-planets are also able

to sweep up large amounts of gas to become
the Jovian planets.

• Solar wind (Or stellar wind in general) from

the star formation blows out the rest of the gas.
An artist’s impression of a young star and its
protoplanetary disk in the process of forming planets
gas/dust
The young Sun
nebula

solid planetesimals
 More Evidence Beyond our Solar System
 Early stages of a planetary system formation can be imaged directly
 Dust disks have large surface area and radiate effectively in the
infrared A recently released ALMA image
Hubble image of a young solar
(Radio wavelengths) of
system. Young star clearing part of the
protoplanetary disk in HL Tauri,
gas
450 ly away, about 1 Myear old

Thick disk
What creates a difference between inner and outer planets
in the solar system?
The answer: TEMPERTURE!
•Rocky inner planets: The type of
the material that condensed out of the
nebular cloud at these higher
temperatures was metallic and rocky
in nature.

•Gaseous, bigger outer planets:

Both rock and gas could condense out
of the cloud at lower temperatures
where these planets formed.
•But gas such as H, He, water,
methane and ammonia also
condense at the low temperatures
Why are they gaseous? – gas and ices are present at that distance in bigger amount
Why are they bigger? - accretion onto the planet starts sooner because they are further
from the Sun, less affected by solar wind. Because they grow bigger, larger masses of ices
and gas are accreted and they become more massive
 Extrasolar Planets or Exoplanets
(Planets orbiting around other stars)
About 3,000 exoplanets have been confirmed as detected. They are in orbit around more
that 1102 planetary systems. All these systems are in nearby stars, around the solar
neighborhood.
There are 460 multiple planetary (Two or more planets) systems confirmed.
Direct detection of exoplanets is very difficult. The stars is millions of times brighter than the
exoplanets and the exoplanets are too close to the star to be resolved.

There are different methods to detect exoplanets. The two methods that are
discovering more exoplanets are:
• Observing the star’s wobble (Doppler shift) due to gravitational
attraction of the orbiting planet(s).

• Observing the transit of a planet in front of the star

51 Pegasi - the first detection in 1994 (using the Doppler shift
method) of an extrasolar planet

A sketch of 3 planets orbiting Upsilon Andromedae! (The star

have actually 4 planets)

For more about exoplanets, check on Planetquest, the

search for another Earth: planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov
An animation of a planet orbiting a star
The planet and the star orbit around the common center of mass (+)
Observing the Doppler shift of the absorption (or emission) lines in the
spectrum of a star will show a periodic variation in the radial velocity of the
star
Detecting planets using the Doppler shift of the star
Detecting exoplanets using the Doppler shift method

The star 51 Pegasi has one

planet orbiting the star.
We see a periodic variation in
the radial velocity of the star

The star Upsilon

Andromedae has 4 planets .
The plot clearly show two
periodicities in the radial
velocity of the star. Other
periodic variation caused
by the other two planets are
smaller and are mounted
on top of the two
periodicities
 Detecting exoplanets using the transit method

Photometry of the star will reveal a small change in the light of the star. The
light from the star is decreased by a small amount when the planet is
transiting in front of the star. The decrease is small, about 1/10,000 of the
light of the star.
Measuring the change in the light curve of the star over time, reveals the
presence of an exoplanet (Using photometry).
The Kepler spacecraft is using the transit method.
 The Kepler spacecraft

 The spacecraft was launched

on March 7th, 2009
 It is in orbit around the Sun
 It has detected 961
exoplanets
 3,845 exoplanets candidates
 Instrumentation: It has a 0.95
meter diameter telescope with
a photometer
 The spacecraft is monitoring
145,000 stars in the Cygnus
and Lyrae constellations
Field of view of Kepler and location of
exoplanets candidates
The region of the sky being monitored by Kepler is between
the Deneb and Vega stars in the Summer Triangle (formed by
Vega, Altair and Deneb stars)
Latest announcement of planets detected
by Kepler (March 2014)
Naming exoplanets
Exoplanets are named after the star they
orbit. The name of the planet is the name of
the star plus a lower case letter starting with
b for the first planet, c for the second planet
and so on.
Example: The star Kepler 47 has two planets,
one planet is named Kepler 47b the other
Kepler 47c
Examples of light curve of some of the
exoplanets detected by Kepler
If the size of the planet is large with respect to the size of the star, the dip in the light
curve is larger
A few notes regarding detection of exoplanets
 Most of the exoplanets detected have been detected in the past are of relatively
large mass, about Neptune to Jupiter’s mass or a few times the Jupiter’s mass and
reside close to the parent star. These planets are “easier” to detect.
 Because of their bigger mass and close distance to the star, they produce larger
radial velocity changes in the star which are reflected in a large Doppler shift of
the star. The shorter orbital period produce a shorter Doppler shift effect.
 Since they are close to the star, they have short orbital periods. It is easier to
observe an occultation; the occultation occur more often. The light curve can be
obtained in a short time.
 The detection of bigger planets is a selection effect. Small planets and farther
away from the star may be there but are more difficult to detect because they
produce a small Doppler shift or their orbital period is long and the dip in the light
of the star is small.
 A few planets smaller, close or a little larger than the Earth have been detected.
 Planets with the same mass or close to Earth mass have already been detected
 Detections of Earth mass planets in the habitable zone have been detected. This is
a high priority in the search for exoplanets.
 The habitable zone is the region around a star where water can exist in liquid
form. Closer to the star, water will evaporate. Farther from the star, water will
freeze
 The location of the Habitable Zone
A plot of distance from a star as function of star mass (or temperature) where water can
exist in liquid state. Notice that the scales of the plot are logarithmic
A few important notes regarding detection of exoplanets, the location
of the habitable zone and the possibility of life on planets in that zone
 One condition for a planet to be able to harbor life is to be located in the habitable
zone. But there are other important conditions.
 Stars of higher mass have higher temperatures and radiate more energy
(F =  T4 ). The habitable zone must be farther from the star. Planet located a large
distance are more difficult to discover, they have long orbital periods.
 The habitable zone in stars of lower mass (lower T) may be closer. Planets located in
the habitable zone may have shorter orbital periods, They are “easier” to detect
 Star of larger mass evolve much faster, in a few million years. Life may not have
enough time to start or to evolve.
 Stars of low mass evolve much slower, in a few billion years. The life time of those
stars may be long for life to start and evolve.
 Massive stars has higher temperature and radiate more UV, not good for sustaining
life.
 An exoplanet can be located in the habitable zone but its atmosphere may have
evolved. They may have high temperature. The composition of the atmosphere may
contain gases that are not good for sustaining life (Example: Venus)
 Some planets located in the habitable zone may not have the protection of a
magnetosphere.
 Comparison of the habitable zone in the Solar
System and in the Kepler 62 planetary system
The Kepler 62
system has 5
planets, two of
them in the
habitable zone

 The star has a

temperature of
4,925 K (Sun’s
temperature 5,800
K)
 Its luminosity is
about 0.21 Sun’s
luminosity
 Its age is about 7
billion years (Sun
is about 4.6 billion
years old)
 Kepler 47, planets around a binary star
Comparison of Solar System and Kepler 47 habitable zones
One of Kepler 47 planets reside in the habitable zone
The stars are located at 3,400 ly from the Sun

 The main star

Kepler A has a
temperature of
5,636 K
 The companion
star Kepler B has
a temperature of
3,357 K
 The planet
located in the
habitable zone is
a gas giant,
about 23 times
the mass of
Earth
An interesting case: The “Vulcan” exoplanet
A planet was discovered in orbit around the star 40 Eridani A (HD 26965) by a UF team lead
by Professor Jian Ge and Dr. Bo Ma from the UF Astronomy Dept.
The suggestion that this star may have a planet called Vulcan, the home planet of Mr. Spock
in the Star Trek series, was made by a group of astronomer and Gene Roddenberry creator
of the series Star Trek years ago. At that time nobody knew that this star may have a planet.
The planet now called HD26965b has about twice the diameter of Earth and about 8 times
the mass of the Earth. Its orbital period is 42 days and its distance from the star about 0.6
AU
The star if located at 16 ly from the Sun. Its spectral classification is K ( the Sun is classified
as G2 with a temperature of 5,800 K)
Here is a scale
comparison of the solar
system and the HD26965
system.
Since the star has less
mass than the Sun, its
temperature is lower,
around 4,500 K. The
habitable zone is closer
to the star.
The “Vulcan” exoplanet
is inside the habitable
zone
Potentially habitable exoplanets
(As of Nov. 2012)
An example of an image of an exoplanet in the
star Fomalhaut (Hubble Space Telescope)
Is it possible to detect the composition of gases (or chemical
elements) present in the atmosphere of an exoplanet?

The light from the star is transmitted through the atmosphere of a planet during the
primary eclipse. It can be analyzed in a spectrograph to reveal the presence of elements
and molecules in the atmosphere of the exoplanet
Sodium (Na), potassium (K), methane have been detected in the atmosphere of
exoplanets

Planet
atmosphere
Latest news regarding detection of exoplanets
 In October 2012, it was reported the discovery of an exoplanet in Alpha
Centauri (binary star), the closest star to the solar system, 4.3 ly away
 The planet has a mass of 1.2 Earth mass, orbital period 3.2 days. The
distance from the star is 0.04 AU. Estimated temperature is high, 1,500 K (
For comparison, Venus 735 K)
 The detection need to be confirmed. If it can be confirmed, it will be the
closest exoplanet to the solar system.
A summary on the latest news regarding detection of exoplanets
 Several exoplanets residing in the habitable zone have been discovered
 Exoplanets have been detected around binary stars.
 The binary star Kepler 47 has two planets orbiting around it. One of them
in the habitable zone
Detection of exoplanets with mass close to Earth mass
 One example is the planet discovered around Alpha Centauri with 1.2
mass of the Earth. But it distance is too close to the star (0.04 AU) and the
temperature is too high (1,500 K)
 Kepler 186f was announced in 2014. It has a 1.2 Earth’s mass, located in
the habitable zone, in orbit around a red dwarf star .
 Kepler 452b was announced in 2015. It has a 1.63 Earth’s radius, located
in the habitable zone, in orbit around a G2 star.
 Detection of an exoplanet (“Vulcan”) around the star HD26965. The star is
located at about 16 ly from Earth. The planet has a diameter about twice
the diameter of Earth, 8 times the mass of Earth. The planet is located in
the habitable zone
A note regarding the structure of other planetary
systems
 Several of the planets found so far are large planets, their size and
mass are around or bigger than Jupiter.
 Some of them are gaseous planets, with very low density. Some
densities as low as 500 kg/m³ (Water density 1000 kg/m³)
 They are located close to the star, at a distance less than the distance of
Mercury from the Sun. Their orbital periods are in the range of a few
days.
 Since they are massive and have large temperature, they are called
“hot Jupiters”
 This is an unusual configuration is we compare with structure of the
Solar system.
 According with simulations, these planets may not have been born at a
close distance from the star. They were formed at a larger distance and
later they migrated inward due to interaction with the material in the
proto planetary disk