Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
4th Edition
ISBN: 9780134089089
Author: Jeffrey O. Bennett, Seth Shostak
Publisher: PEARSON
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Chapter 1, Problem 4RQ
To determine
Extrasolar planets and the effect of extrasolar planets in discovery of new life elsewhere.
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Check out a sample textbook solutionStudents have asked these similar questions
Kepler-444 is one of many stars with terrestrial planets that is over 10 billion
a) What do you think the spectral type of Kepler-444 might be?
b) How do stars of this spectral type end their lives?
c) If evolution followed a similar course on a habitable pranet around a star similar to
Kepler-444, it would be 5 billion years more advanced than we are. Let’s try to project
our future and see what happens. In particular, suppose our civilization gets motivated
enough to colonize another planet. Kepler indicates that most stars have potentially
habitable (and colonizable) planets, so roughly how far away is the typical “nearest"
planet?
d) The New Horizons probe on its way to Pluto took 9 years to travel 30 AU. If we could
send colony ships with the same average speed, roughly how long would it take to reach
the typical nearest planet?
уears
old.
Most of the stars we can see with the unaided eye in our night sky are hundreds or even thousands of lightyears away from Earth. (The very closest ones are only a few dozen lightyears away, but most are much further.) The vast majority of stars in our galaxy are many tens of thousands of lightyears away. IF intelligent life existed on planets orbiting some of these stars – and that’s a huge IF! – comment on the likelihood and practicality of (a) visiting, (b) communicating with, or (c) verifying the existence of those life forms. Describe how you might go about approaching EACH of these three tasks, or if you think they are even possible. (One or two sentences for each part would be appropriate.)
In a globular cluster, astronomers (someday) discover a star with the same mass as our Sun, but consisting entirely of hydrogen and helium. Is this star a good place to point our SETI antennas and search for radio signals from an advanced civilization?
Group of answer choices
No, because such a star (and any planets around it) would not have the heavier elements (carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, etc.) that we believe are necessary to start life as we know it.
Yes, because globular clusters are among the closest star clusters to us, so that they would be easy to search for radio signals.
Yes, because we have already found radio signals from another civilization living near a star in a globular cluster.
No, because such a star would most likely not have a stable (main-sequence) stage that is long enough for a technological civilization to develop.
Yes, because such a star is probably old and a technological civilization will have had a long time to evolve and develop there.
Chapter 1 Solutions
Life in the Universe (4th Edition)
Ch. 1 - Why are scientists interested in the possibility...Ch. 1 - People have long been interested in life beyond...Ch. 1 - Prob. 3RQCh. 1 - Prob. 4RQCh. 1 - What do we mean by a habitable world? Does a...Ch. 1 - What do we mean by the universality of physics and...Ch. 1 - Besides Earth, what worlds in our solar system...Ch. 1 - Prob. 8RQCh. 1 - Prob. 9RQCh. 1 - What do we mean by astrobiology? What are the...
Ch. 1 - An extrasolar planet is (a) a planet that is...Ch. 1 - A habitable planet is (a) a planet that has oceans...Ch. 1 - Prob. 13TYUCh. 1 - Prob. 14TYUCh. 1 - The correct order for the eight official planets...Ch. 1 - Today, the research known as SETI is conducted...Ch. 1 - Prob. 17TYUCh. 1 - Scientists today are interested in searching for...Ch. 1 - Based on current evidence, the object in our solar...Ch. 1 - Prob. 20TYUCh. 1 - Universal Laws. Briefly discuss how the idea that...Ch. 1 - The Science of Astrobiology. The study of...Ch. 1 - Conducting the Search. Given the large number of...Ch. 1 - Funding for Astrobiology. Imagine that you are a...
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- H5. A star with mass 1.05 M has a luminosity of 4.49 × 1026 W and effective temperature of 5700 K. It dims to 4.42 × 1026 W every 1.39 Earth days due to a transiting exoplanet. The duration of the transit reveals that the exoplanet orbits at a distance of 0.0617 AU. Based on this information, calculate the radius of the planet (expressed in Jupiter radii) and the minimum inclination of its orbit to our line of sight. Follow up observations of the star in part reveal that a spectral feature with a rest wavelength of 656 nm is redshifted by 1.41×10−3 nm with the same period as the observed transit. Assuming a circular orbit what can be inferred about the planet’s mass (expressed in Jupiter masses)?arrow_forwardThe most promising places to look for other habitable planets would be orbiting stars similar to our Sun, or even dimmer than our Sun in our own solar system in other galaxies orbitin bright, giant stars like Betelgeusearrow_forwardA newly discovered orange dwarf star has a surface temperature of approximately 5185 K. How far would its Goldilocks Zone be from the star if an astrologist wanted to look for potentially habitable planets? And how wide would the zone be?arrow_forward
- F2 Planets in the habitable zone of their stars: 1 #3 3 O are so far from their stars that it is very difficult to discover them O are at a temperature where water can exist as a liquid on the planet's surface O are always the planets closest to the star are also called hot Jupiters O cannot exist around stars that are red dwarfs (spectral type M) E G D F3 $ 54 2 4 R F4 LL F DII % 5 Q Search F5 T 9 -0. G < 6 A F6 Y * F7 & 7 H PrtScn U FB 8 Home Jarrow_forwardWhy are we unlikely to find Earth-like planets around halo stars in the Galaxy? A. Halo stars formed in a different way from disk stars. B. Planets around stars are known to be extremely rare. C. Halo stars formed in an environment where there were few heavy elements to create rocky planets. D. Halo stars do not have enough mass to hold onto planets. Is the answer C? Since halo stars are formed early when the galaxy consisted of mainly hydrogen and helium, there are no heavier elements available to create Earth-like planets so just halo stars are formed? Thanks!arrow_forwardWhat is the best way to determine if a exoplanet has life inside it? Group of answer choices Detect the star the exoplanet is orbiting and compare it to the Sun. Detect the exoplanet and determine if it is in the habitable zone of the star. Detect the exoplanet and study the atmosphere of the exoplanet. Detect the exoplanet and determine its age to see if it is similar to the age of the Earth.arrow_forward
- If you could search for life in the galaxy shown in this image, would you look among stars in the disk, in the central bulge, in the halo, or in all of those places? Discuss the factors that influence your decision.arrow_forwardWhen astronomers found the first giant planets with orbits of only a few days, they did not know whether those planets were gaseous and liquid like Jupiter or rocky like Mercury. The observations of HD 209458 settled this question because observations of the transit of the star by this planet made it possible to determine the radius of the planet. Use the data given in the text to estimate the density of this planet, and then use that information to explain why it must be a gas giant.arrow_forwardWhat is a Worm Hole? How can we travel into the Worm Hole?arrow_forward
- If there was a planet orbiting a first generation star, which planet in our solar system would it resemble most? Would it be likely for such a planet to have life?arrow_forwardFor which of the following reasons (select all that apply), is it useful/important to send rovers to other planetary bodies in our solar system? O a. The engineering innovations developed to produce successful/viable rovers and landers on other planets can help lead to developments in the technology used here on Earth that may have taken far more time to develop without the limitations provided by space travel to foreign worlds. O b. The data collected can help improve our understanding of the evolution/development of our solar system. O. Rovers/landers can be outfitted with various tools and equipment that can be used to inform of us of the geological histories of each of the planets they visit. O d. More direct probes of the planetary surface are possible to detect signs of the building blocks of life. O e. Rock samples can be used to calibrate our estimations of the age of the solar system.arrow_forwardTutorial A radio broadcast left Earth in 1923. How far in light years has it traveled? If there is, on average, 1 star system per 400 cubic light years, how many star systems has this broadcast reached? Assume that the fraction of these star systems that have planets is 0.50 and that, in a given planetary system, the average number of planets that have orbited in the habitable zone for 4 billion years is 0.40. How many possible planets with life could have heard this signal? Part 1 of 3 To figure out how many light years a signal has traveled we need to know how long since the signal left Earth. If the signal left in 1923, distance in light years = time since broadcast left Earth. d = tnow - broadcast d = 97 97 light years Part 2 of 3 Since the radio signal travels in all directions, it expanded as a sphere with a radius equal to the distance it has traveled so far. To determine the number of star systems this signal has reached, we need to determine the volume of that sphere. V, = Vb…arrow_forward
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