Swinburne Astronomy Online

Project 29: Search for Other Worlds

This site is to help those of you who have chosen to do the Search for Other Worlds project for Swinburne Astronomy Online.

The general blurb for this project goes like this:

    Science fiction 20 years ago, reality today. How exactly do astronomers search for and detect planets around other stars? To achieve high marks for this project you will need to outline the basic observational techniques currently employed by such extra-solar planet hunters, and demonstrate an appreciation for the strengths (and just as importantly, the weaknesses) of these techniques.
    You should also discuss the properties of the planetary systems found to date and how they relate to our previous understanding based on only one known system. Finally, an assessment of the near- and long-term prospects for finding terrestrial-like planets should be included.

There are four main aspects to the project:

  1. to understand and explain the main observational techniques currently used to discover extrasolar planets;
  2. to discuss the strengthens and weaknesses of each of these techniques (and specifically any biases of the techniques); and
  3. to briefly describe the types of planets found from each technique (and how they relate to our previous understanding of planets based on our own Solar System); and
  4. to provide an assessment of the prospects for finding terrestrial-like planets.
A good place to start would be with your textbook.

Here are a couple of websites that might be a good place to start:

Don't forget to use me as a resource too. If you're stuck or just need a little guidance, feel free to email me and I'll be happy to help out.

Good luck!

Last updated: April 2012

email: smaddison-at-swin.edu.au
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