Meet the Jovians’ Hot Siblings Jack Koloskus Kat O’brien Polly Adams Tay Branson-Young

Ours There are four Jovian planets that everybody knows and loves. Saturn, Jupiter, Uranus and Neptune.

Facts about Our Jovian Friends They are all composed of mainly the same chemical substances: Hydrogen and Helium. Though Jupiter is much larger than the other three, all four planets are gaseous and are made out of generally the same chemicals with small variations. All four are the outer planets of our solar system.

Theirs In recent time scientists have been able to search outside of our solar systems and into others, and were surprised to see they found other planets that vaguely resemble our own Jovians. Hundreds of these strange new planets have been found around stars the same size or smaller than our own we call the sun. The majority of these planets have been filed under the category of “Hot jupiters”.

Always on the search… Though there are hundreds (506 as of December 6 th, 2010) of planets that we have discovered in the search for planets like our own, only a few have been terrestrial or even remotely Earth-like. Fortunately for this investigation, most that have been found are quite large and jovian- like.

Detection methods… When trying to find planets in other solar systems, scientists use many devices that detect… – Radial velocity – Gravitational Microlensing – Pulsar Timing – Etc.

Radial Velocity Radial Velocity is the effect that a planet and a star have on each other. Most people are already aware of the star’s effect on the planet, but they are unaware of how the planet affects the star. As the planet goes around the star, it pulls the star slightly closer.

Gravitational Microlensing Gravitational Microlensing relies on the fact that light is warped by gravity. Light Massive Object The gravity magnifies the light of distant objects, and makes things visible that we could not otherwise see.

Pulsars Pulsars work just like sonar detection does. Neutron Stars emit radio waves, and we can detect planets based on the radio waves bouncing off of them. Observing the change of the sonar helps us track the orbital location of both the star and the planet.

Extra-solar Jovain Like Planet Classifications As far as science has taken us, we do not yet have the technology to discover as many facts about extra-solar planets as we have the planets in our own solar system. Scientists have classified two different types of jovian like planets that lie beyond our solar system: Hot Neptunes and Hot Jupiters.

Hot Jupiters Hot Jupiters are essentially gas planets similar in size to Jupiter, but are much closer to their parent starts. They are, in essence, the hot sisters of our planets. Yep.

TrES-4b TrES-4b is insanely large. Due to technological shortcomings, we cannot see what TrES-4b looks like in visible light, only get an estimation on its size.

While Jupiter is 5.3 AU away from its parent star, TrES-4b is AU away from its parent star. Jupiter Our Sun TrES-4b TrES-4 In this model, the planet/star sizes aren’t to scale, but the distance between them is.

Continued Discovered in 2006, the planet orbits its star is a quick 3.5 days and is times the size of our own gaseous giant, Jupiter. When viewed at the right time, TrES-4b creates a total eclipse of its star (Which is saying something considering how close the hot-jupiter is to its star).

Hot Neptunes Hot Neptunes are Jovian-like planets that orbit their parent stars very closely. Their mass and size more closely resembles that of Neptune and Uranus rather than the large size of Saturn and Jupiter. Unlike Neptune and Uranus, these planets are assumed to be very hot in temperature because they are so close to their stars.

More about them… The mass of a hot Neptune resembles the core and envelope mass of Uranus and Neptune, and are assumed to be covered in similar gasses to them as well (Though we are unsure due to insufficient technologies)

Mu Arae C Mu Arae C was the first extra-solar Jovian like planets that scientists classified as a Hot Neptune. Like hot Jupiters, hot Neptunes revolve around their stars very quickly. Mu Arae C revolves around it’s star in an astonishing 9.6 days.

So… Yep. Planets outside our solar system closely resemble our own. They’re mostly vast and gaseous, but somehow orbit very close to their parent stars. This raises the question… HOW DID OUR JOVIAN PLANETS COME TO ORBIT SO FAR FROM THE SUN? Think about it.