Extrasolar Planets in the Classroom

TL;DR

This paper introduces a classroom laboratory experiment demonstrating the transit method for detecting extrasolar planets, allowing students to estimate planetary radii and compare with established values.

Contribution

It presents a simple, hands-on educational experiment for understanding exoplanet detection via the transit technique.

Findings

Estimated planetary radius: 1.27 +/- 0.20 R_J

Agreement with established value: 1.32 +/- 0.25 R_J

Educational value for teaching exoplanet detection

Abstract

The field of extrasolar planets is still, in comparison with other astrophysical topics, in its infancy. There have been about 300 or so extrasolar planets detected and their detection has been accomplished by various different techniques. Here we present a simple laboratory experiment to show how planets are detected using the transit technique. Following the simple analysis procedure describe we are able to determine the planetary radius to be 1.27 +/- 0.20 R_{J} which, within errors agrees with the establish value of 1.32 +/- 0.25 R_{J}.