Exoplanets: Worlds Beyond Our Solar System

Where do we find exoplanets? How? What kinds exist? Are they habitable? How do we know?
NASA defines an exoplanet as “any planet
beyond our solar system.”1 Since their discovery
in the 1990s1, astronomers have been observing
and studying exoplanets. They play a major role
in the search for life in the universe, grant
insight to processes of planetary formation,
and capture the imaginations of many. There
are so many different planets out there, worlds
where it rains glass2, worlds covered in oceans
of lava3, hot Jupiters4, Earth cousins5, and more.
They’re a fascinating topic. So how do we know
about the conditions on these faraway worlds?
How do we know they exist at all?

Direct imaging method showing four super-Jupiter planets around HR 8799. Image
Detection Methods Credit: Jason Wang (Caltech) / Christian Marois (NRC Herzberg), Source: The Planetary
6
Society (TPS)
NASA details five ways to identify exoplanets7.

Radial Velocity Transit Direct Imaging Microlensing Astrometry

Observes wobble in a
star based on its
orbit around a
center of gravity
with its planet(s).
Observes a planet
passing directly in
front of its star,
blocking some of its
light.
Observes exoplanets
by covering the light
emitted by their
stars, allowing for
photos to be taken.
Observes a planet as Observes wobble of
its gravity bends the a star in the sky
light of its star, relative to the
causing a spike in its position of its
emission. neighboring stars.

9
Credit: ESA 10 12
8 Credit: Marois et al 11 Credit: Planetary Society
Credit: Alysa Obertas Credit: Caltech

Exoplanet Conditions
How do we know what it’s like on an exoplanet? There are several contributing
factors. Mass and size can be determined through the same methods used to
search for exoplanets. Surface conditions are more difficult, but the most
widespread to study those is spectroscopy. By studying which wavelengths of its
star’s light a planet’s atmosphere absorbs, its composition is revealed14.
Scientists define an area known as the “Goldilocks zone”13.This is a range of
1
distances from a star that are the right temperature for water to be in liquid
phase on the surfaces of planets in that zone. Since life as we know it depends
on water, this is where we look for “habitable” planets.

1
NASA, 2 NASA, 3 NASA, 4 NASA, 5 NASA, 6 TPS, 7 NASA, 8 Planet Hunters, 9 ESA, 10 Planet Hunters, 11 Caltech, 12
TPS, 13
NASA, 14
ESA