Your guide to exoplanets

Posted: Friday, March 06, 2009 5:05 PM by Alan Boyle

Planetary Society

An online "trading card"
highlights the Gliese
876 planetary system.

The planet-hunting game is shifting into high gear with the launch of NASA's $591 million Kepler mission, but how can you possibly keep track of all those alien worlds without a program? Fortunately, the Planetary Society has just the thing: a free online catalog of exoplanets that will keep up with a tally expected to escalate into the thousands.

The catalog is designed to cater to all types, ranging from avid fans who gobble up the vital stats for every newfound world to the casual spectator who may wonder what the heck an exoplanet is, said Bruce Betts, the nonprofit group's director of projects.

"We've tried to make it accessible," he told me today. And that means including an animated "trading card" for each of the 300-plus planets detected so far.

The whole database is automated, which will make it easy to update the catalog with fresh finds from Kepler as well as from its European counterpart, the Corot space telescope, and a phalanx of ground-based telescopes monitoring faraway planetary systems.

How do scientists find faraway planets? A variety of methods come into play: Some research groups check for a characteristic gravitational wobble in a star's motion. Others watch for the way an unseen planet might distort the light coming from a more distant source. Kepler and Corot are designed to watch for the faint dimming of light when a planet passes over its parent star's disk (or when the planet passes behind the star). Our interactive on "Other Worlds" explains all those methods.

The technique used by Kepler, known as transit photometry, has even been used to analyze the atmosphere of an alien planet. In some cases, methane and water vapor have been detected - which are hopeful signs for the future identification of alien life.

Betts said the Planetary Society is committed to keeping the catalog current - which is something we haven't been able to do with our "Other Worlds" interactive. The society is getting advice from some of the top troops in the planet-hunting business, including Caltech graduate student Darin Ragozzine, a member of Mike Brown's dwarf-planet search team; and Berkeley Professor Geoffrey Marcy, a leader of one of the longest-running exoplanet search efforts.

"We live in an exciting era of discovery with exoplanets, with new worlds found every month, sometimes every week," Marcy said in the Planetary Society's news release. "The Planetary Society's online Catalog of Exoplanets is the perfect resource for the public to keep pace with new discoveries."

The Planetary Society's catalog isn't the only one out there: For years, the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia has been the authoritative source for vital statistics about all the alien worlds detected so far. Another Web site, SolStation.com, provides a digest of discoveries for a wide assortment of stars, many of which have planetary systems associated with them.

Betts said the Planetary Society's catalog doesn't include some of the planetary systems reported over the years - including the pulsar planets, which were the first-ever worlds ever found orbiting an alien star (this star happened to be a radio-emitting neutron star), and free-floaters that could be considered oversized planets or undersized brown dwarfs.

Speaking of dwarfs, let's not leave out the dwarf planets in our own solar system: So far, five worlds fit the IAU's disputed definition: Eris, Pluto, Haumea, Makemake and Ceres. Uruguayan astronomers currently list more than a dozen additional candidates. Mike Brown thinks there should be around 50 on the list already, with the potential for thousands.

Is there something wrong with having thousands of dwarf planets in our solar system? Not in my book. I'd favor counting them as a subcategory of the full planetary list - just as I'd favor including the pulsar planets, the free-floaters and other weird worlds beyond our solar system. We'll have plenty of planets to choose from, once Kepler, Corot and other planet-hunting telescopes get deep into their surveys.

Or do you think we should be more discriminating with the planet label? Feel free to give vent your views as a comment below. And for more about the planet search, check out these archived posts:

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Comments

You will find life on a planet that orbits the second or third closest star to Earth. They are sister Stars that orbit each other about every 88 yrs. The planet is about 2 or almost 3 times Earths size I think 2.5~ times Earths size. They know about US so be prepared they are very nasty. Once We take notice of them they will arrive here in about 30-40 yrs. However our atmosphere is irritating to them it will make them scrach all over their bodys.

Lazarus, New York , New York (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 9:01 PM)

I wonder what the religions of this world would say if life on another planet were found. I would laugh my head off listening to them try & figure out what they should all say. It would be the first time in history that all the religious folks from all religions would agree on something. They would have to figure a way to say their god made a few stops on the route to earths bibles & maybe decided he or she or it would have made other life forms...

Marty Arnold (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 9:11 PM)

I like the term "dwarf planet". It seems very descriptive of a celestial body that isn't big enough to be a planet.

As for the apparent disputed definition of a planet; what is the hurry? As for the press accepting the disputed definition; what scientist relies on what the press determines? Until a usable (and acceptable) definition of a planet is determined the question of Pluto or other lesser sized planets must remain up in the air.

Dennis Reiley, Flint MI (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 9:11 PM)

Loron Knowlen of the Lutz observatory gave a very nice talk about the exoplanets. Currently the observatory is giving tours at the school along with refurbishing their 50 year old telescope a refractor of 6". We enjoyed looking at the moon through the Brandon.

Raymond Massey (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 9:25 PM)

Why would it matter to religion if life was found on other planets, what would be wierd is if its advanced life and has no knowledge of God or our religion, in the bible it plainly states that their are other worlds out there with inhabatents but it says that they did not choose the path of Sin, so there is room for other life, just not room for this other life to have sin i guess.

Chris Armstrong Vancouver Washington (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 10:20 PM)

To Marty Arnold regarding religion and life on other planets:
"Thou hast, moreover, asked Me concerning the nature of the celestial spheres. To comprehend their nature, it would be necessary to inquire into the meaning of the allusions that have been made in the Books of old to the celestial spheres and the heavens, and to discover the character of their relationship to this physical world, and the influence which they exert upon it. Every heart is filled with wonder at so bewildering a theme, and every mind is perplexed by its mystery. God, alone, can fathom its import. The learned men, that have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have failed, throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the number or the age of the other planets. Consider, moreover, the manifold divergencies that have resulted from the theories propounded by these men. Know thou that every fixed star hath its own planets, and every planet its own creatures, whose number no man can compute." (Baha'u'llah, "Gleanings," 162-163) Baha'u'llah (1817-1892) is the founder of the Baha'i religion.

Richard Reid (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 10:37 PM)

As a Christian who is also very interested in science, I have been giving much thought to how to respond to the discovery of intelligent life on other worlds. Since the Bible teaches that God "created the heavens and the earth," this means that even aliens are part of God's creation, and that God does care about them, just as much as he cares about humans and all other creatures on Earth.

The two big theological questions thrown up by ETIs are (1) What does the presence of extraterrestrial life mean for the whole evolution/creation debate? and (2) What does the presence of extraterrestrial life mean with regard to the Christian doctrines of the Incarnation (God taking on human form in the Person of Christ) and salvation? I am confident that thoughtful Christians will find answers that are completely consistent with the revealed truth of the Bible.

Derek Atkins, Denton, Texas (Sent Friday, March 06, 2009 11:37 PM)

It wouldn't hurt my United Methodist beliefs one bit. I look forward to the discoveries of other and other alien races.....There is one God who created all of the universe or universes.

Kenny Brett, Columbus, Mississippi (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 12:24 AM)

"I wonder what the religions of this world would say if life on another planet were found. I would laugh my head off listening to them try & figure out what they should all say."

Some will deny it, most others will simply work it into their beliefs. Indeed, remembering the lessons of Galileo and others, the Catholic Church has been ahead of the curve on this for some time now, having openly acknowledged the probability of life elsewhere.

And why not? What faith wants to effectively say their God is too small to accommodate the rest of the Universe?

Consider this:

http://www.richardb.us/project.html

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 2:29 AM)

"I wonder what the religions of this world would say if life on another planet were found. I would laugh my head off listening to them try & figure out what they should all say."

You don't know too much about religious beliefs and doctrine, do you? God is the Creator of the Universe, therefore one can easily argue that God would also be perfectly capable on other worlds if or when He saw fit. And what makes you think intelligent aliens on other worlds don't worship the same God(s) as we do? Are you getting secret messages from them...or what?

Mark Jaeger, Lafayette, Indiana (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:00 AM)

A planet is gravitationally round and orbits a star (period). It does not matter what the size is. If you must have a more discriminating system, then designate the thing by the major component, ie Silicon, Gas or Ice. Does not get any easier than than!

Now, let's see what the Kepler sees. I sincerely hope that NASA was more careful with the optics than they were with Hubble! Does anyone rember who did the optics, by the way? A maker of precision analytical equipment, as I vaguely remember. Be a mite tough to fix this one!

Happy Spring Solstice to you!

Wade Whitlock, Aberdeen, MD (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 10:59 AM)

Might an exoplanet's eccentricity hint at the existance of other planets in the system? Or is it possible for a single planet to form a wildly eccentric orbit without being disturbed by others?

Douglas (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:25 AM)

Well, exo life had been discovered on the meteorite ahl-800001. The debate still goes on about it. I mentioned this to scifi fans and they dont believe it. Their quote is, "if it aint spock or star wars, we dont need it".
Most people will pay attention to the discovery of new earth like planets for a short time, then go back to watching the TMZ and american idol fantasies they prefer.

ross (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 12:33 PM)

To Marty Arnold: Why don't you critics of religion *ever* know what you're talking about? Christians have been debating with each other the existence and possible nature of extraterrestrials for many centuries. According to Catholic theologians, nothing in revelation or doctrine excludes the possibility. Judaism is probably similar, but I don't know. As for Islam, I don't know. Buddhism probably has no problem with extraterrestrials at all.

Bill Castaneda, Los Angeles, CA (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 1:30 PM)

There is all this postulating about what effect alien life would have on earth religions. Should we discover an advanced civilization, their attitudes about spirituality and faith would likely be different and completely incompatible with any known human religion.

Maggie, Hearne, Texas (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 3:45 PM)

For Marty's querry, God kept leaving the garden for somewhere. I've long thought it quite possible that he was visiting the other worlds and peoples (or whatever) he'd created. Nothing in the Bible says we are the unique targets of his love. I'm sure there are people who say that. Of course you can find a person who says just about anything.

The link to "free floaters" raised a question I hadn't considered. That of method of formation. Did it form like a planet or form like a star? My first thought is toward binary systems. Unless these are two independent star systems that combined then at least one of the stars formed like a planet. I've always thought it was the same process, just larger in scale at the middle. Free floaters, what's wrong with the eald standard "rogue?"

Tim Rommes, Washington, UT (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 9:30 PM)

Religions will adapt to all scientific discoveries.

Just as they adapted to the discovery that the earth was round, the discovery that the earth orbited the sun, and the discovery that the sun is not the centre of the universe.
There will be a temporary period where some religions deny the facts, some ignore the facts and some accept the facts and adapt.

We are currently in such a period regarding the theory of evolution.

Those religions that continue to deny obvious facts will appear foolish and loose support, and eventually fade away.
Those religions that avoid the issue, or accept the new information and adapt will continue as normal.

marvin (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 9:38 PM)

Since the comments have mostly been about the religious implications, I'll throw in my two cents. It is interesting to me that just when science has seemingly beaten religious explanations for nature back to literally before the beginning of time, it is also just now discovering the failure of local realism. Unless I am completely off track here, that allows for the possibility of classical supernaturalism.

Dan - Vancouver, WA (Sent Saturday, March 07, 2009 11:17 PM)

The Bible has nothing to do with scientific reality. It is a wonderful compilation of dozens of earstwhile believers and their impressions/beliefs. It is full of meaningfull stories and good, ethcial ideals. Its lessons (most of them) can be used to lead a moral life, along with plenty of other literature.
But it is not a reference for the scientific future.

George, Houghton Lake, MI (Sent Sunday, March 08, 2009 8:53 AM)

Somewhere out there is an intelligent species. The big question is, do they taste like chicken?

Dennis, Richmond VA (Sent Sunday, March 08, 2009 9:00 PM)

I don't much care what you call them, but it's exciting to see these new worlds discovered. When we actually get out there, they probably won't be all that economically important — every large world is naturally at the bottom of an inconveniently deep gravity well; resources in asteroids and comets are more accessible. But planets are inspiring, and that's probably what we need most at this point.

In that vein, I say forget the online animated trading cards — how about some REAL trading cards, sold in packs of 10 with Milky Way bars or some such? And please include the distance to the star; it's important to have a sense of scale. Who knows, some kids might get into these.

Joe Strout, Fort Collins, CO (Sent Sunday, March 08, 2009 11:55 PM)

Joe: If those cards are printed up, I'll want to collect the set. Who's with me?

Alan Boyle (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 2:51 AM)

i agree with george in houghton lake. the bible was meant as a morality guide, not science book. this is not a religious topic, it's a scientific topic. the hunt for other earths fuels a mystery that has captivated mankind for centuries. now that we have a tool to assist in this venture, everybody gets all bent out of shape over the religious implications of such a find. even if 1 or more earth-like planets are found within their respective habitable zones, determining whether that planet has not only life but intelligent life-forms is a whole new ball game. we're simply trying to detect them(planets) at this point. technology needs to advance a little more for a positive id on extra-terrestrial life. making inferrences thru chemical analyses of those planets would be inconclusive on determining actual life-forms. direct observation would be needed. sending a probe there would be pointless because of the amount of time/distance to travel there, make observations & transmit the data back & then go over the data before releasing to the public. our grandchildren's grandchildren would be the ones getting that information, but hopefully we'll figure out ftl travel before then to speed up the process, but that's unlikely anytime soon. what a shame.

Robbie Withey, New Bern,NC (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 10:41 AM)

Joe and Alan, I second. The cards are a great idea. Milky way bars are a great way to market them. Alan, any way we can get the first exoplanet that Kepler discovers called Snickers?

We now know the moon isn;t made of cheese, but perhaps, in the infinite universe, there are exoplanets that are full of peanuts!

OneVoice, Frederick MD (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 1:00 PM)

"There will be a temporary period where some religions deny the facts, some ignore the facts and some accept the facts and adapt.

We are currently in such a period regarding the theory of evolution."

60 years ago the Steady State Theory of the universe garnered widespread media attention and a very respectable following. It now sits in the dustbin of history. All the facts discovered in the last several decades point to a "created" universe. Coincidentally, in the same order as stated in the book of Genesis. Nowhere does my Bible state that the Earth is flat, or that the Sun or Earth are the center of the universe. Misstaken interpretations led to those conclusions. (And BTW, I'm not Catholic.) Neither do I see any scripture, in my Bible (KJV), denying or proposing the existence of alien races or alien worlds. As for the Theory of Evolution, I have studied it rather extensively (being a biologist) and find it to be long on theory but short on fact - especially regarding humans. Remember Marvin and you also George, the scientific community has to adapt too. All of you please remember that God knows you and loves you whether you care to acknowlege him or not.

Steve Laughlin (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 3:46 PM)

A question for someone who knows about this method of exo-planet detection: If we are detecting a planet by observing the difference in luminocity when a planet passes in front of it's star, don't we need to be in the proper plain in relation to the planet's orbit to observe this? If this is so, then Keplar will only be able to detect less than half of the planets out there. I can't imagine that we could detect a planet with this technique if we our viewing angle is perpendicular to the plain of the planet's orbit. Therefore, we could infer that the actual number of planets might be perhaps twice the amount detected by Keplar.

Kirk, Traverse City, MI (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 3:59 PM)

"Should we discover an advanced civilization, their attitudes about spirituality and faith would likely be different and completely incompatible with any known human religion."

Entirely likely. But the question was more about how we would fit such information into our beliefs, not what they themselves might believe...

...Of course, an exchange of information on religions / philosophies would be interesting, if the nearest civilizations are not so far away (and if FTL communication / travel is never possible) as to make it impractical.

Frank Glover, Rochester, NY (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 5:51 PM)

I recommend out the expoplanets "Tour" on WorldWide Telescope... available with the download from worldwidetelescope.org...

Alyssa Goodman (Sent Monday, March 09, 2009 11:19 PM)

Kirk, you are correct, we can only detect planets whose orbits cross a line between us and the star. That's much less than half; it's something more like 1% of all planets if memory serves. That's why it's relevant that Kepler will watching so many stars at once -- it's a numbers game, and you need a lot of targets to get a few successes.

Joe Strout, Fort Collins, CO (Sent Tuesday, March 10, 2009 11:59 PM)

Christianity also thinks the Earth is only a couple millenia old, dinosaurs never existed (or man was here before them at the very least LOL) so once/if ET life is found there will be a mad scramble to rewrite holy script to accommodate these new findings.

Robbie, people get bent out of shape because of the religious zealots (yes you're a zealot when you try to force-feed everyone your beliefs or make laws etc in accordance with your religion affecting those that have different ideals). I think it is silly to assume because you (religions) think there is some higher power that your imaginary power also MUST rule the lives of a lifeform billions of miles away yet to be discovered by the lifeforms that made up your higher power. And just for some scale, 1 million seconds is about 11.5 days...1 billion seconds is just short of 32 YEARS...big difference with just 3 more zeroes.

Corey, Saskatchewan, CANADA (Sent Wednesday, March 11, 2009 2:21 PM)

Thanks,Corey. it amazes me how all religions have an explanation for how the universe & life came to be & how they expect us to believe their drivel as doctrine. don't get me wrong, everyone is entitled to his/her own opinions/beliefs, i respect that. funny to us how, like you mentioned & i did read about, that they believe the earth is only a few thousand years old & people coexisted with the dinosaurs(and they died out only a couple hundred years ago). they say they believe in science but are so mired in thier contradictory,mystic beliefs that they have a hard time accepting something proven,such as carbon-dating. it's been proven a useful tool in dating rocks,fossils,etc. people fear change,even if it is for the better. how they can simply dismiss the FACT that the earth is actually much,MUCH older than 6000years is beyond me. enough of the religion vs science ranting. they never sit well w/each other. i'm just eager to see what kepler will find. i hope it does detect another earth teeming with life like our world & actual sentient beings capable of thinking for themselves and in their own utopian society. there'll be masses of people here becoming jealous or freaked out over such a discovery that there is life on another planet where those people never knew the meaning of war, murder, death, disease, religion, kill, aging, pain. they're out there & i applaud them. THAT'S where heaven is.

Robbie Withey, New Bern,NC (Sent Friday, March 13, 2009 8:58 AM)

Hi All

The LDS Church and the Seventh Day Adventists both mention extraterrestrials in their founder's Scriptures/writings and both are pretty fundamentalist even if individual members are less so. The real problem will be for believers in Henry Morris's Young-Earth Creationism who have been told for over 40 years, incorrectly, that speculations about extraterrestrials derive from "evolutionism". Similarly the Old-Earth Creationists, most prominently astronomer Hugh Ross's "Reasons to Believe" organisation, will have problems because they argue that Earth's rarity as a habitable planet is an argument for the need for an interventionist God.

Best not to build one's house of belief on the shifting sands of scientific findings to start with, or learn to love the delicious mystery of everything that science reveals. All Truth is God's Truth.

Adam (Sent Wednesday, March 18, 2009 7:52 PM)

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