Extra solar Planets In this exercise we will use Starry Night Enthusiast™ to observe the distribution of known stars with planets orbiting them.
Display the stars with extra solar planets by clicking on FavouritesStarsExtra Solar Planets. This will take you to a distance of about 90 LY from the solar system, so that you can see the stars with extra solar planets (marked so by circles) in our vicinity. Stop the flow of time. a. Open the Info pane and expand the Other Data panel. Select and double-click on a star with an extra-solar planet to update the Other Data information. (This may take some practice, as you must hit the dot in the middle of that star’s circle.) Note that the Other Data panel contains a list of data relevant to the planet. Form a table to list the star’s Name, along with the Extrasolar mass, the Extrasolar semi-major axis and the Extrasolar period of the associated planet from the Other Data table for comparison with the Sun’s planets. Repeat this process for about 10 other stars with extrasolar planets. What general conclusions can you draw about these planets from your list? b. Open the Find pane and type “Sun” or double-click on the Sun to center the view upon our Sun. Increase the distance from Earth to about 300 ly, using the Up button below the Viewing Location on the toolbar. Hold down the Shift key while clicking, holding and moving the mouse to rotate the view in 3-dimensional space. As you pivot the star field around the Sun, examine the distribution of stars with extrasolar planets. Describe this distribution. Are these stars clustered on one side of it? Are they located in a few clumps? Are they located in a thin plane? Explain why they are in the distribution you see, keeping in mind that the Milky Way is a flattened disk of stars, gas, and dust and allowing for the difficulty of detecting these very distant planets.
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