Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T11:37:36.394Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Exoplanet detection techniques – from astronomy to astrobiology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2009

Wolfgang Brandner
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Germany
Wolfgang Brandner
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Heidelberg, Germany
Hubert Klahr
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie, Germany
Get access

Summary

Introduction: planet detection and studies in the historical context

Beyond Earth, only five planets have been known since historical times. These are the three “terrestrial planets,” Mercury, Venus and Mars, and the two “gas giants,” Jupiter and Saturn. The systematic studies of the skies starting in the seventeenth century marked the beginning of a new era. The ice giant Uranus, the next outer planet beyond Saturn, was first cataloged as 34 Tau by John Flamsteed in 1690, but not recognized as a “wanderer” in the skies. In 1781 William Herschel was the first to spatially resolve the disk of Uranus, initially classifying it as a comet. Uranus also played an important role in the discovery of Neptune. Neptune, the eighth planet in the Solar System, and the outermost of the ice giants, was first observed in 1612/1613 by Galileo Galilei. At that time, Neptune was in close conjunction with Jupiter. Galileo recognized the moving source in the vicinity of Jupiter (see Fig. 16.1), but decided not to get distracted from his studies of the orbital motions of Jupiter's four largest moons, which we now refer to as “Galilean Moons.” Another 230 years passed till precise measurements of Uranus' orbit indicated the presence of an additional outer planet. Based on predictions by Urbain Leverrier (which were in close agreement with independent calculations by John Couch Adams) in 1846, Johann Gottfried Galle finally identified and resolved Neptune.

Type
Chapter
Information
Planet Formation
Theory, Observations, and Experiments
, pp. 250 - 255
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×