Project Interstellar Name:​__​Andrew & Elliot​_____________________

Astronomy (50 pts)

Project Description: ​ Your assignment is to find the next habitable planet. Like the film
“Interstellar,” you will need to search three different possible solar systems that fall within the
“Goldilocks” zone. Imagine that Earth can no longer sustain life in the near future. As a result,
you need to send three different research teams out to three different solar systems outside of
our own. You only have enough resources to send three missions into interstellar space. So,
choose your destinations wisely. Follow the guidelines below. Present your research as a
slideshow.

Project guidelines:

1) Describe two missions that have been used to detect extrasolar planets. Include the
Kepler mission and compare its’ methods to another mission that has been used to
detect planets. (cite reference article)
- Hubble
- Spitzer

2) Describe two different techniques used to detect planets. Focus on the Transit method
and Doppler Spectroscopy method. (cite reference article)
- Transit Method
- Doppler Spectroscopy Method

3) Explain what the “Goldilocks” zone means as it applies to different solar systems. (cite
reference article)

- The "Goldilocks zone" Is the space that is perfectly habitable for us meaning it is
Earth-like
- While looking planets in different solar systems, we have to look only inside of the
Goldilock zone for planets.

4) List the top three planetary candidates to send your interstellar research teams to visit.
(cite reference article)
- Luyten b
- Kepler-452b
- Kepler-62f

5) Describe the star in each solar system by its’ spectral class, temperature, luminosity,
radius, age, mass, and blackbody spectrum. (cite reference article)
 6) Describe the planet in each solar system. What is their orbital period and radius? How
have the planetary properties benn determined or measured? What makes it a good
candidate to support life like earth. (cite reference article)

7) How far away are these solar systems. What method is used to determine the distance
to each of these solar systems. List distances in light years. Create a map to reference
their locations with respect to the Sun in the Milky Way.

8) If we could somehow travels at 50% of the speed of light, then how long would it take us
to travel to these three locations. Apply the effects of special relativity and time dilation
to determine how much time would pass for your astronauts flying roundtrip v. people on
Earth. You may assume that they only visit each planet for a few days to determine the
planetary conditions before returning back to Earth. The short amount of time at each
exoplanet is negligible. Thus, you may calculate total travel time based on a constant
speed of 50% of the speed of light for 2X distance (round-trip).

9) Are we alone? Research Fermi’s Paradox. Describe Fermi’s Pardox. Research the
Drake Equation. Does the Drake equation help provide a a probability of life existing
beyond Earth? (cite reference article)

Project Requirements:
1) Work in pairs. Share the research responsibilities. Divide responsibilities evenly.
2) Create a Google slideshow presentation with images for each step above.
3) Cite reference article as a URL address hyperlink at the bottom of each page.
4) Present slide show Friday 1/12/18 to the class or create a poster board display of your
slideshow. 5pts Extra Credit will awarded to the top 3 presentations or posters.

Sources For:

Missions and Techniques -

http://www.searchforlife.net/exoplanet-missions/

Hubble -
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/exoplanets/transit-photometry.html
Images -
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/edu_hubble-space-telescope_l
arge.jpg

Spitzer -
http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/exoplanets/radial-velocity.html

Images -
https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/images/346943main_fd3-grapple_full.jpg

Goldilocks Zone -
https://science.howstuffworks.com/other-earth1.htm

Planetary Candidate Search -

- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/koi/help/columns.html#kepler_name
- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/confirmed_planets/search.php
- https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html
- http://www.drewexmachina.com/2016/08/29/habitable-planet-reality-check-proxima-cent
auri-b/
- http://www.solstation.com/habitable.htm#sthash.sTlWoyxP.dpbs
- http://www.hzgallery.org/
- http://phl.upr.edu/home
- http://phl.upr.edu/data
- https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/20-intriguing-exoplanets
- http://www.solstation.com/planets/water-worlds.htm
- http://www.solstation.com/planets/earths.htm
- http://www.solstation.com/planets/super-earths.htm
- http://exoplanet.eu/
- http://www.searchforlife.net/exoplanet-missions/
- https://archive.stsci.edu/searches.html#missions
- http://var2.astro.cz/ETD/
- http://www.astro.gsu.edu/~thenry/CTIOPI/index.htm
- https://www.cosmos.esa.int/#
- https://www.ipac.caltech.edu/2mass/
- http://var2.astro.cz/EN/
- http://www.solstation.com/visuals.htm
- http://www.hzgallery.org/links.html
- https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html
-

Luyten B Sources -
- https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html?searchQuery=%7B%22ser
vice%22%3A%22VOTABLE%22%2C%22inputText%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Fheas
arc.gsfc.nasa.gov%2Fvo%2Fcache%2F111.85208229_5.22578699_0.2%2FExoPlanet.
1619.xml%22%2C%22paramsService%22%3A%22Vo.Generic.Table%22%2C%22title
%22%3A%22GJ%20273%3A%20ExoPlanet%22%2C%22columns%22%3A%22*%22%
7D
- http://crowlspace.com/?p=2687
 - http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/gj_273_b/
- http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%4011486255&Name=BD%2b05%20%2
01668b&submit=submit
- http://aladin.u-strasbg.fr/AladinLite/?target=BD%2b05%20%201668&fov=0.0348453398
0613577&survey=P%2fDSS2%2fcolor
- http://www.exoplanetkyoto.org/exohtml/GJ_273_b.html
- http://www.openexoplanetcatalogue.com/planet/GJ%20273%20b/
- http://www.drewexmachina.com/2017/03/20/habitable-planet-reality-check-the-nearby-gj-
273-or-luytens-star/

Kepler-452b Sources
- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/koi/search.php
https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html?searchQuery=%7B%22service%2
2%3A%22VOTABLE%22%2C%22inputText%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Fheasarc.gsfc.nasa.g
ov%2Fvo%2Fcache%2F296.003688_44.277561_0.2%2FSimbad.302.xml%22%2C%22params
Service%22%3A%22Vo.Generic.Table%22%2C%22title%22%3A%22kepler-452%3A%20Simb
ad%22%2C%22columns%22%3A%22*%22%7D
- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/koi/search.php
- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/data_search/search.php
- http://www.openexoplanetcatalogue.com/planet/Kepler-452%20b/
- http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-452_b/
- http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?bibyear1=-20&bibyear2=%24currentYear&sub
mit=Display&Ident=%409642866&Name=Kepler-452b&bibdisplay=refsum&bibyear1=-20
&bibyear2=%24currentYear#lab_bib
- http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=Kepler-452&submit=SIMBAD+search
#lab_arch
- http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0004-6256/150/2/56/meta#aj515345s2

Kepler-62f Sources:
- https://mast.stsci.edu/portal/Mashup/Clients/Mast/Portal.html?searchQuery=%7B%22ser
vice%22%3A%22VOTABLE%22%2C%22inputText%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Fheas
arc.gsfc.nasa.gov%2Fvo%2Fcache%2F283.212747_45.349865_0.2%2FExoPlanet.161
9.xml%22%2C%22paramsService%22%3A%22Vo.Generic.Table%22%2C%22title%22
%3A%22kepler-62%20%3A%20ExoPlanet%22%2C%22columns%22%3A%22*%22%7
D
- http://exoplanets.org/detail/Kepler-62_f
- https://arxiv.org/abs/1304.7387
- http://archive.stsci.edu/kepler/published_planets/search.php?action=Search&kepler_na
me=Kepler-62+f
- http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/kepler-62_f/
Photo Sources:

- http://static4.businessinsider.com/image/582a7f2d691e88014a8b5f19-1190-625/another
-earth-might-exist-right-next-door--and-this-tiny-telescope-may-be-the-first-to-see-it.jpg

- https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/eso1629e-1024x656.jpg

- http://www.solstation.com/planets/terra3no.jpg

- https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA21390/PIA21390~orig.jpg

- https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/archive/top100/

- https://images.nasa.gov/

- https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/index.html

- https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/hubbleimage1p1611a1r.jpg

- https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/thumbnails/image/15861603283_3579db3fc6_o.j
pg

- https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/ARC-1969-AC90-0559-4/ARC-1969-AC90-0559-4
~orig.jpg

- https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/hubble-observes-one-of-a-kind-star-nicknamed-na
sty_17754652960_o/hubble-observes-one-of-a-kind-star-nicknamed-nasty_1775465296
0_o~orig.jpg

- https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/PIA20486/PIA20486~orig.jpg

- images-assets.nasa.gov/image/a-sky-view-of-earth-from-suomi-npp_16611703184_o/a-
sky-view-of-earth-from-suomi-npp_16611703184_o~orig.jpg (15k x15k Image- DO NOT
OPEN) Use This --->
https://images-assets.nasa.gov/image/a-sky-view-of-earth-from-suomi-npp_1661170318
4_o/a-sky-view-of-earth-from-suomi-npp_16611703184_o~large.jpg

- http://archives.esac.esa.int/ehst/#home
Pictures of BD +05 1668b at reticle from different types of pictures

DSS2/red

DSS2/blue
allWISE

2MASS
PanSTARRS/DR1/g

DSS2