THE SEARCH FOR ANOTHER EARTH
A PROJECT REPORT
BY
SAAD ALI
214
ABHISHEK
254
YOGESH KUMAR
255
HITESH
215
ARIHANT
226
SUBMITTED TO:MR. RAVIKANT (SIR)
TABLE OF CONTENT
1 WHY SEARCH FOR OTHER PLANETS ?
2 HISTORY OF PLANETS HUNTING
3 VARIOUS MISSIONS
4 METHODS OF FINDING PLANETS
5 PLANETS FOUND
6 WHERE ARE WE NOW?
7 WHAT IF WE FIND A PLANET WITH LIFE?
WHY SEARCH FOR ANOTHER EARTH ?
Are we alone? Are their other planets like ours? Does life exist elsewhere in the
universe? These are questions mankind has been asking for years - since the time of
Greek philosophers.But for years, those answers have been elusive, if not impossible to
find.
Even more exciting is the fact that astronomers are in hot pursuit of the first discovery
of an Earthlike exoplanet orbiting a star other than the sun.
The discovery of the so-called "blue dotcould redefine our understanding of the
universe and our place in it, especially if astronomers can also find signs that life exists
on that planet's surface.
HISTORY OF PLANETS HUNTING
In 1584, when the Catholic monk Giordano Bruno asserted that there were "countless
suns and countless earths all rotating around their suns," he was accused of heresy. But
even in Bruno's time, the idea of a plurality of worlds wasn't entirely new. As far back as
ancient Greece, humankind has speculated that other solar systems might exist and
that some would harbor other forms of life.
The Earth was dethroned as a supreme entity in the cosmos early in the 16th century,
when Copernicus discovered that our planet orbits the sun. His insight, while
reluctantly accepted, changed Western thinking forever.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Edwin Hubble, using what was then the largest
telescope in the world atop of Mount Wilson, found that the small nebulae in the sky
were neighboring islands of stars far outside our own galaxy, each containing hundreds
of billions of star Hubble's observations proved that the potential havens for habitable
planets are immeasurable in number. Still, almost an entire century went by without
convincing proof of planets around even the nearest stars. On several occasions,
discoveries of such extrasolar planets were announced, only to be repudiated
An Onrush of Discovery
The first discovery of a planet orbiting a star similar to the sun came in 1995. The Swiss
team of Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz of Geneva announced that they had found a
rapidly orbiting world located blisteringly close to the star 51 Pegasi. Their planet was at
least half the mass of Jupiter and no more than twice its mass. They had observed it
indirectly, using the radial velocity method. (For information about radial velocity
detection, see "Finding Planets.")
By the end of the 20th century, several dozen worlds had been discovered, many the
result of months or years of observation of nearby stars.
MISSIONS
The following is a list of major space and ground missions that have found, are
searching for, or can characterize exoplanets.
Kepler
Launched: March 7, 2009
Location: Space
Operated by: NASA
Launched in 2009, the Kepler mission searches for exoplanets using the transit
method. Is is currently monitoring some 100,000 stars near the constellation
Cygnus for signs of exoplanets.
Kepler's goal is the creation of a statistical survey that predicts how many Earthlike planets likely exist in our galaxy. Notable discoveries include the first multiplanet transiting solar system and some of the smallest exoplanets ever observed.
Spitzer Space Telescope
Launched: August 25, 2003
Location: Space
Operated by: NASA
Designed to observe objects in the infrared spectrum, Spitzer has proven to be a
revolutionary tool in the characterization of exoplanets. The mission is the first
instrument to directly detect light from an exoplanet, and its data has revealed
the composition, temperature, and even likely wind patterns on faraway
exoplanets.
Hubble Space Telescope
Launched: April 24, 1990
Location: Space
Operated by: NASA
Hubble's high-powered optics have produced some of the most breathtaking
images ever taken of the cosmos - and have also managed to snap pictures of
exoplanets.
One of the first directly-imaged exoplanets, Fomalhaut b, was discovered in
images taken by Hubble. Astronomers continue to study images Hubble has taken
over the years for exoplanet cameos that were previously undetected.
CoRoT
Launched: December 27, 2006
Location: Space
Operated by: CNES/ESA
The first space mission designed to search for transiting exoplanets, CoRoT has
produced dozens of new exoplanet discoveries, including the first temperate gas
giant exoplanet to be observed.
CoRoT's strong emphasis on exoplanetary characterization has produced some of
the most detailed exoplanet studies yet published.
Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer (LBTI)
First light: December 7, 2010
Location: Mt. Graham, Arizona (see map)
Operated by: University of Arizona
An add-on to the Large Binocular Telescope (the largest single-mount telescope in
the world), LBTI is a cutting-edge interferometer that will be able to observe
planetary dust disks that are the birthplace of stars, as well as Jupiter-size
exoplanets orbiting at distances from their stars similar to Earth's.
INDIAS CONTRIBUTION
Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan)
First light: 5 November 2013, 09:08
Location: Satish Dhawan FLP
Operated by: ISRO
Mars Orbiter Mission is India's first interplanetary mission to planet Mars with an
orbiter craft designed to orbit Mars in an elliptical orbit. The Mission is primarily
technological mission considering the critical mission operations and stringent
requirements on propulsion and other bus systems of spacecraft.
Mission Objectives
One of the main objectives of the first Indian mission to Mars is to develop the
technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an
interplanetary mission.
Following are the major objectives of the mission:
A. Technological Objectives: Design and realisation of a Mars orbiter with a
capability to survive and perform Earth bound manoeuvres, cruise phase of 300
days, Mars orbit insertion / capture, and on-orbit phase around Mars.Deep space
communication, navigation, mission planning and management. Incorporate
autonomous features to handle contingency situations.
B. Scientific Objectives:
Exploration of Mars surface features, morphology, mineralogy and Martian
atmosphere by indigenous scientific instruments.
METHODS OF FINDING OUT PLANETS
The following is an overview of some of the planet detection methods that have
thus far proved successful, as well as other methods currently in development.
Doppler Shift
Precise measurement of the velocity or change of position of stars tells us the
extent of the star's movement induced by a planet's gravitational tug. From that
information, scientists can deduce the planet's mass and orbit.
Why does a planet cause a star to sway? If a star has a single companion, both
move in nearly circular orbits around their common center of mass. Even if one
body is much smaller, the laws of physics dictate that both will orbit the center of
the combined star and planet system. The center of mass is the point at which the
two bodies balance each other. The radial velocity method measures slight
changes in a star's velocity as the star and the planet move about their common
center of mass. In this case, however, the motion detected is toward the observer
and away from the observer. Astronomers can detect these variances by
analyzing the spectrum of starlight. In an effect known as Doppler shift, light
waves from a star moving toward us are shifted toward the blue end of the
spectrum. If the star is moving away, the light waves shift toward the red end of
the spectrum.
This happens because the waves become compressed when the star is
approaching the observer and spread out when the star is receding. The effect is
similar to the change in pitch we hear in a train's whistle as it approaches and
passes.
The larger the planet and the closer it is to the host star, the faster the star moves
about the center of mass, causing a larger color shift in the spectrum of starlight.
That's why many of the first planets discovered are Jupiter-class (300 times as
massive as Earth), with orbits very close to their parent stars.
Astrometric Measurement
Astrometric displacement of the Sun due to Jupiter as at it would be observed
from 10 parsecs, or about 33 light-years.
As with the radial velocity technique, this methods depends on the slight motion
of the star caused by the orbiting planet. In this case, however, astronomers are
searching for the tiny displacements of the stars on the sky.
The planets of our solar system have this effect on the Sun, producing a to-andfro motion that could be detected by an observer positioned several light years
away. Astrometric instruments precisely measure the position of stars as
compared to other stars around them, and are thus able to detect any
movements in the star's position due to the "wobbling" caused by an orbiting
exoplanet.
Transit Method
If a planet passes directly between a star and an observer's line of sight, it blocks
out a tiny portion of the star's light, thus reducing its apparent brightness.
Sensitive instruments can detect this periodic dip in brightness. From the period
and depth of the transits, the orbit and size of the planetary companions can be
calculated. Smaller planets will produce a smaller effect, and vice-versa. A
terrestrial planet in an Earth-like orbit, for example, would produce a minute dip
in stellar brightness that would last just a few hours.
Missions that use the transit method, such as the Kepler and CoRoT spacecraft,
are able to monitor large numbers of stars at once for the dimming caused by a
transit. The Kepler mission has discovered more than 1,000 potential exoplanets
using this method.
Direct Imaging
This Hubble Space Telescope image was one of the first direct images of a planet
ever made.
Taking actual pictures of exoplanets is extremely difficult due to how much
brighter a star is than its planet. However, specialized optics and clever
observation methods have made a handful of exoplanet images possible, with the
potential for many more to be made in the future.
One method of direct imaging, coronography, uses a special masking device to
block out the light of a star so that the planets orbiting it can be seen more
clearly. In space, this masking device could take the appearance of a giant
starshade, precisely positioned in space in between a nearby telescope and the
star that telescope is searching for exoplanets.
Another method of direct imaging, interferometry, uses specialized optics to
combine light from multiple telescopes in such a way that the light waves from
the star cancel each other out, leaving behind the light from any exoplanets that
may be present. The Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer and Keck
Interferometer both use this method to search for exoplanets.
Gravitational Microlensing
This method derives from one of the insights of Einstein's theory of general
relativity: gravity bends space. We normally think of light as traveling in a straight
line, but light rays become bent when passing through space that is warped by
the presence of a massive object such as a star. This effect has been proven by
observations of the Sun's gravitational effect on starlight.
When a planet happens to pass in front of a star along our line of sight, the
planet's gravity will behave like a lens. This focuses the light rays and causes a
temporary sharp increase in brightness and change of the apparent position of
the star.
Astronomers can use the gravitational microlensing effect to find objects that
emit no light or are otherwise undetectable.
SOME HABITABLE PLANETS FOUND
The Habitable Zone
One of the main ingredients for life as we know it is liquid water. Water exists as a
liquid between 273K and 373K (unless the pressure is too low, in which case the
water sublimates into gaseous water vapor). The region on the solar system (or
any planetary system) where the temperature is in this range, is called the
habitable zone.
EARTH
A planet that can sustain life is termed habitable, even if life did not originate
there. The Earth provides liquid wateran environment where complex organic
molecules can assemble and interact, and sufficient energy to sustain
METABOLISM.The distance of the Earth from the Sun, as well as its orbital
eccentricity, rate of rotation, axial tilt, geological history, sustaining atmosphere
and protective magnetic field all contribute to the current climatic conditions at
the surface.
MARS
After the Earth, Mars is the most habitable planet in our solar system due to
several reasons:
Its soil contains water to extract.
It isnt too cold or too hot.
There is enough sunlight to use solar panels.
Gravity on Mars is 38% that of our Earth's, which is believed by many to be
sufficient for the human body to adapt to.
It has an atmosphere (albeit a thin one) that offers protection from cosmic and
the Sun's radiation.
The day/night rhythm is very similar to ours here on Earth: a Mars day is 24 hours,
39 minutes and 35 seconds
The only other two celestial bodies in orbits near the Earth are our Moon and
Venus.
There are far fewer vital resources on the Moon, and a Moon day takes a month.
It also does not have an atmosphere to form a barrier against radiation. Venus is a
veritable purgatory. The average temperature is over 400 degrees, the barometric
pressure is that of 900 meters underwater on Earth, and the cherry on top comes
in the form of occasional bouts of acid rain. It also has nights that last for 120
days. Humans cannot live on Mars without the help of technology, but compared
to Venus it's paradise!
KEPLER-62E
Kepler-62e is an exoplanet believed to be a water world, orbiting at about the
equivalent distance of Mercury in its planetary system some 1,200 light-years
from Earth.The planet is an exciting find to exoplanet researchers because it is
close in size to Earth, and also orbits in the habitable region of its star (which is
smaller and dimmer than that of Earth's).
The planet is about 1.6 times the size of Earth and orbits its parent red dwarf star
about once every 122 days. It is actually one of two possibly habitable planets in
its system. Also present, but farther out from the star, is Kepler-62f, which is
about 1.4 times the size of Earth.
HD 85512b
HD 85512b Orbit
HD 85512b revolves around its host star at a distance of 24 million miles (39
million km) and takes 54 days to make one complete orbit.
HD 85512b Mass and Radius
HD 85512b is estimated to have a mass around 3.6 times that of Earth, with an
estimated radius of around 1.5 times that of Earth. It is one of the smallest
exoplanets detected in the habitable zone of its host star.
HD 85512b Habitability
HD 85512b is ranked in the top five of possible habitable planets outside our solar
system. If the planet has a similar atmosphere to Earth then surface temperatures
could allow liquid water to flow on its surface.
TAU CETI E
The planet Tau Ceti e orbits close to the inner edge of the habitable zone. It
receives about 60% more light than Earth from the Sun making it a hot planet
probably only habitable to simple thermophilic (heat-loving) life. Its mean global
surface temperature should be near 70C assuming a similar terrestrial
atmosphere. However, it is likely that superterran planets have much denser and
heat trapping atmospheres and Tau Ceti e might be instead dominated by a
strong greenhouse effect making it more likely a super-Venus than a super-Earth.
Without any knowledge of its atmosphere we are not able to tell if it is a mildly
hot planet tolerable for simple life forms or a very hot non habitable Venus-like
world. Tau Ceti e has an Earth Similarity Index of 0.77 assuming a more terrestriallike atmosphere.
Where are we in the search for exoplanets?
Recently teams of scientists determined that ONE IN FIVE SUN-LIKE STARS LIKELY
HAVE AN EARTH-SIZED PLANET IN THE HABITABL ZONE. According to Seager, all
evidence points to the fact that small planets are extremely common, they are
literally everywhere. How many planets have we found? It depends on how you
count them, but, Seager said, the better statement for everyone is were
confident that every single star in our Milky Way galaxy has at least one planet.
What do we do if we find a planet with life?
Even if we find evidence indicating that life may exist on another planet, we wont
be able to tell if life is basic, complex, or intelligent. But it will give us a start on
answering the question of whether there is intelligent life.
Additionally, Seager said we could feasibly communicate with another planet
(SETI for example), but that it would be a slow conversation. If a planet is ten
light-years away, it would take ten years for our message to be delivered and then
another ten years for a reply if they answer right away.
