• Question: is there any sightings of new planets :)

    Asked by anon-206582 to Jose Eliel on 8 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Jose Eliel Camargo Molina

      Jose Eliel Camargo Molina answered on 8 Mar 2019: last edited 8 Mar 2019 3:25 pm

      Hi Bob Ross!!

      We find new planets outside of our solar system all the time!! quite recently there have been many new discoveries using a relatively new method where we look at stars at the precise moment a planet gets in the way. When the planet gets between us and the star, you can measure the light from the star being very slightly dimmed (as the light is blocked by the planet) and while we don’t see the planet itself, we know it is there! This is much easier to spot for planets very far away. See this video for example:
      [video src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/2/29/Moon_transit_of_sun_large.ogv/Moon_transit_of_sun_large.ogv.480p.vp9.webm" /]

      Some scientists estimate that there are at least 17 billion Earth-sized planets in the Milky Way

      A super cool thing is that we can also tell sometimes when those planets are similar to earth, not only in size but also as in they have a similar range of temperatures and are made of the same thing.

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