The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Final Exam: reminder

April 17, 79pm Cumulative, 70 questions, 2 hours Natural Sciences Rooms 1, 7, 145 sorted by last names: NS 1: Abdel Kirleis NS 145: Kirupakaran Starr NS 7: Steer Zubairi

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Todays Topics

Review of last lecture Extrasolar planets (Ch. 11)

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Classifying stars (Ch. 11.4) SETI (Ch. 12)

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Rate of exoplanet discoveries: 19952014

1779 exoplanets known

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Planet Detection Methods

Indirect: Measurements of stellar properties revealing the effects of orbiting planets
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Direct: Pictures or spectra of the planets themselves

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The Challenge to the Direct Imaging of Exoplanets: Brightness Difference

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Gravitational Tugs
Sun and Jupiter orbit around their common centre of mass
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Sun therefore wobbles around that centre of mass with same period as Jupiter

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Gravitational Tugs
Suns motion around solar systems centre of mass depends on tugs from all the planets
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Astronomers around other stars that measured this motion could determine masses and orbits of all the planets

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Doppler Technique
Measuring a stars Doppler shift can tell us its motion toward and away from us
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Current techniques can measure motions as small as 1 m/s (walking speed!)

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

How does light tell us the speed of a distant object?

sound
(speed in air ! 300 m/s ! 700 mph)

light
(speed in air ! 300,000 km/s)

The Doppler Effect

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Measuring the Wavelength Shift

Stationary Moving Away Away Faster Moving Toward Toward Faster We generally measure the Doppler Effect from shifts in the wavelengths of spectral lines The amount of blue or red shift tells us an objects speed toward or away from us.
2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

First Extrasolar Planet

Doppler shifts of star 51 Pegasi indirectly reveal a planet with 4day orbital period
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Short period means small orbital distance

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First extrasolar planet to be discovered (1995)

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

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Transits and Eclipses

A transit is when a planet crosses in front of a star The resulting eclipse reduces the stars apparent brightness and tells us planets radius Essentially no orbital tilt: accurate measurement of planet mass
2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

All Kepler candidates

Sun + Earth

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

HR 8799 bcd
Marois et al. (2008, Keck telescope)

Exoplanets Imaged !
Fomalhaut b
2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Kalas et al. (2008, Hubble telescope)

HR 8799 Movie
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HR 8799 (masked) d

Planets: Common or Rare?

One in six stars examined so far have turned out to have planets
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The others may still have smaller (Earthsized) planets that current techniques cannot detect
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Likely half of stars have planets.

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Modifying the Nebular Theory

Observations of extrasolar planets have shown that nebular theory was incomplete
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Effects like planet migration and gravitational encounters might be more important than previously thought
depends on how quickly the solar wind clears the protoplanetary disk

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Planetary Migration
A young planets motion can create waves in a planet-forming disk
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Models show that matter in these waves can tug on a planet, causing its orbit to migrate inward

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Revisiting the Nebular Theory

Nebular theory predicts that massive Jupiterlike planets should not form inside the frost line (at << 5 AU) Discovery of hot Jupiters has forced reexamination of nebular theory Planetary migration or gravitational encounters may explain hot Jupiters

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Todays Topics

Review of last lecture Extrasolar planets (Ch. 11)

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Classifying stars (Ch. 11.4) SETI (Ch. 12)

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Stellar Classification

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Stellar Classification

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Habitable zone dependence on stellar luminosity

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Habitable zone dependence on galactic location?

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How could we detect life on an exoplanet?

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What have we learned?

Are planetary systems common around other stars?

One in six stars examined have been discovered to host planets As many as half of stars in galaxy may host planets
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How can we detect life on exoplanets?

Through direct spectroscopy of their atmospheres Looking for biosignatures: oxygen, ozone, methane

2008 Pearson Education Inc, publishing as Pearson Addison-Wesley

Todays Topics

Review of last lecture Extrasolar planets (Ch. 11)

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Classifying stars (Ch. 11.4) SETI (Ch. 12)

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How Common Are Intelligent Civilizations?

The Drake Equation

Frank Drake, SETI Institute

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow

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The Drake Equation

NHP number of habitable planets in our Galaxy

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flife fraction that are inhabited

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fciv fraction that have technological civilizations

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fnow fraction of technological civilizations living now

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The Drake Equation

NHP number of habitable planets in our Galaxy

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can potentially be answered by Astronomy considerations: planet frequency in stellar habitable zones (10%?) galactic habitable zone (1%10% of Galaxy?)
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NHP ~ 100 billion * 10% * 1 % = 100 million

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The Drake Equation

NHP number of habitable planets in our Galaxy

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flife fraction that are inhabited is life a probable event? If so, flife ~ 100% but so far, observationally, flife ~ 0% fciv fraction that have technological civilizations
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fnow fraction of technological civilizations living now

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The Drake Equation

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow

NHP * flife = number of inhabited planets ~ 100,000? (if flife ~ 0.1%)

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The Drake Equation

NHP number of habitable planets in our Galaxy

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flife fraction that are inhabited

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fciv fraction that have technological civilizations technology took 4.5 Byr to develop on Earth but most stars in Milky Way are older than Sun is intelligence an expected outcome of evolution? does intelligence spawn technology?
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fnow fraction of technological civilizations living now

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The Encephalization Quotient: an Approximate Measure of Intelligence

EQ = 1 means brain mass proportionate to body weight

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humans: EQ = 7 dolphins: EQ = 6

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Evolution of the Encephalization Quotient: Intelligence Is Evolutionarily Favoured

Still: does intelligence spawn technology?

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The Drake Equation

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow
NHP * flife * fciv = number of technologically advanced civilizations ~ 100? (if fciv ~ 0.1%)
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The Drake Equation

NHP number of habitable planets in our Galaxy

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flife fraction that are inhabited

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fciv fraction that have technological civilizations

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fnow fraction of technological civilizations living now how long will we survive our technology? 60 years form invention of radio transmissions to nuclear weapons.
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The Drake Equation

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow
If communication technology has existed in our Galaxy for 10 billion years, but a technologically advanced civilization survives only 100 years, then fnow = 100 years / 10 billion years = 0.00001%
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The Drake Equation

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow

N ~ 0.00001 to 100
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What we Have Learned?

N = NHP * flife * fciv * fnow

None of the parameters of the Drake Equation are well known.

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However, they illustrate the directions that we need to research to find other intelligent civilizations.
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