Astronomy Project 2008
ECoS Faculty: Christopher Palma
ECoS Graduate Student Mentor: Stephen Redman
ExtraSolar Planets
Students will learn two of the methods astronomers are using to find
planets around other stars, the "transit method" and the "Doppler
method." They will use data on the known extrasolar planets to
determine the range of systems (masses, orbits, sizes), and will work
on computer models of the known extrasolar planet systems. They will
determine the expected signal for a transit in stellar photometry and
the signal for a Doppler wobble in stellar spectroscopy. They will then
use real data taken from public archives to see if they can identify
the signals of extrasolar planets by comparison to their models.