Exoplanet Radio - Ep. 19: Direct Imaging Exoplanets In Our Telescopes

The 365 Days of Astronomy

From Aug 14, 2023.

One of the reasons we’ve created Exoplanet Radio is that Exoplanets are awesome. The idea that there are planets in orbit around stars outside our solar system - and even rogue planets that do not orbit a star meandering through interstellar space - is one that cannot help but capture our imagination.

The thing is, finding them is very hard. They are small and dim compared to stars so we need to rely on indirect methods to see them like looking for dips in brightness or a wobbling star, or, in the case of rogue planets with no stars, tiny flashes of light from background stars. But ideally, we’d like to see them directly, in our telescopes. Is that possible? You probably guessed I wouldn’t have brought up the question if the answer wasn’t ‘yes’.

So far, we have discovered over 5,000 exoplanets, using transit, radial velocity and microlensing methods. But there is another way to find exoplanets that has only recently been possible: by directly seeing them with our eyes. This is unimaginatively called the direct imaging method, and has revealed some amazing results.

Music composed by Geodesium: https://lochnessproductions.com

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