The Kepler mission searches for Earth-like planets by looking for the dip in the brightness of a star as such a planet transited across it. Why does this technique actually miss the vast majority of planets?
What will be an ideal response?
By searching for transits, Kepler can only detect those planets with orbits that cross our line of sight to the star. This means the orbit must be very close to edge-on. Because planetary systems around other stars will have a random orientation to us, most planets will not cross our line of sight and cause a dip in the star's brightness. Therefore, Kepler will miss the vast majority of planetary systems. Nevertheless, this is the best method of detection using current technology.
You might also like to view...
Two long bar magnets are aligned so that north poles face each other. The magnets are separated by 1 cm, and a repulsive force between the north poles is 0.04 N. When the separation is increased to 2 cm the force will be
A. 0.020 N. B. 0.050 N. C. 0.40 N. D. 0.025 N. E. 0.010 N.
A sled of mass 10. kg slides down a flat hill that makes an angle of 10.° with the horizontal. If friction is negligible, what is the resultant force on the sled?
What will be an ideal response?
A man stands on a scale in an elevator as shown here. The force of his weight when the elevator is still is Fg downward. Suppose the elevator's acceleration downward is 1/4 g. The weight of the man, Fs, is then:
a. 1/4 Fg. b. 1/2 Fg. c. 3/4 Fg. d. 3/2 Fg. e. 5/4 Fg.
A wave moves in a rope with a certain wavelength. A second wave is made to move in the same rope with twice the wavelength of the first wave. The frequency of the second wave is _________ times the frequency of the first wave
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word