Exo Planet Resources

NASA Exoplanet Archive

Examples From Kepler of Moons and Exomoons With Rings

Please See The Examples Below From the Kepler Mission of Exo Moons - And Moons With Rings - Note Kippling Credit: NASA

A Planet Hunters Guide And Early Planetary Modeling Scenarios

A Planet Hunters Guide And Early Planetary Modeling Scenarios by Jennifer Connors

Introduction

The oldest natural science on our earth is Astronomy. The viewing of and studying stars, planets, moons and the motions of celestial objects originate in the roots of nearly every religion and culture on earth. Since first viewing the beauty of the heavens ~mankind's thoughts were filled with wonder, admiration and devotion to better understand our universe. Exoplanets are the planets that exist in other star systems. Most recently NASA’s planet hunting telescope Kepler returned enough data for us to know that exoplanets exist frequently throughout the universe. New generations of exoplanetary exploration missions are being built to continue the search and study of exoplanets. NASA’s recently launched TESS the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and the JWST the James Webb Telescope were designed to discover a diverse new array of exoplanets and peer deeply into the elemental building blocks of our universe. An intriguing variety of newly discovered star systems with exoplanets are beginning to change our understandings about what types of habitable worlds exist in the universe, how frequently certain types are found, and what the conditions of these many worlds might be like. What do we know about these exoplanetary star systems? And what information do we have to begin modeling and profiling the atmospheric conditions of habitable worlds?

The Search For Exoplanets

The NASA’s exoplanet archive contains 4306 confirmed exoplanets located across 3196 different star systems. More than 5649 exoplanet candidates await secondary telescope confirmations (Exoplanet Archive, 2020). In 2009 The Kepler Telescope Mission launched to study the starlight of a patch of the sky in the Lyra and Cygnus Star Constellations. The goal of this three year mission was to determine if exoplanets exist frequently in the universe. Planet hunters use the light data beamed down by Kepler to find new transiting exoplanets by transit detection method. When sudden drops appear in a stars light we find exoplanets transiting their sta. These drops in starlight are called transits. By using the transit method thousands of exoplanets have been detected and the study of star light teaches us many details about distant star systems; such as stellar and planetary parameters, orbital periods and orientation of orbiting objects, chemical compositions, and temperature. NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) launched in 2018 to search for exoplanets. Rotating every 27 days TESS plans to observe 85% of the night sky searching for exoplanets. All planet hunting missions so far have discovered 1350 gas giants, 1458 neptune-like planets, 1329 super-earths, 163 terrestrial-planets, and 6 unknowns. The orbital periods of exoplanets can range from ~0.1 days to many thousands of days. Categorically terrestrial planets are most similar to Venus, Earths and Mars have rocky cores and high abundancies of Iron. Terrestrial-planets are generally less than 4 times Earth’s radius. Ice giants are similar to our solar systems Neptune and Uranus, which are composed of rock and ice ranging between 4-8 times Earth’s radius. Gas giants resembling Jupiter and Saturn are composed of lighter gases ranging greater than 8 times Earth’s radius with stronger gravitational fields. Small earth-like planets are difficult to find because they create smaller dimmings on a stars light. Surveys searching for smaller earth-like planets require precision suppression of systematic effects that can be found in data. When you couple systematic effects with common noise reduction techniques used in data handling, the tiny decrease of light that an earth-like planets creates may be lost. Smaller numbers of earth-sized exoplanets found in the Kepler survey further defines the necessity for optimal detrending and removal of systematic effects (Petigura, 2015). Additional exoplanets may be found in a star system by detecting Transit Timing Variations (TTV's). Caused by local gravitational disturbances between orbiting objects variaitons alert the presence of other nearby exoplanets, moons or stars. Multi stars systems can be binary and trinary stars. Multi stars express enhanced gravitational relationships with each other creating larger TTV’s. Scientists have also detected exoplanets by radial velocity studies watching for wobbling stars. In radial velocity studies a planet orbiting a star may cause the star to wobble due to gravitational tugs created as two or more objects orbit the same center of mass. The stars wobbling makes light emitted from the star shift from blue to red lightwaves in the electro magnetic spectrum. Scientists discovered the very first exoplanets by radial velocity detections (Mayor & Maurice, 1985).

II. Prospects of Finding Exomoon/s

Ever greater numbers of exoplanets are being discovered and soon we will also detect numerous exomoons. More than 100 moons exist in our own solar system. Many newly discovered exoplanets are super earths and neptunes raising the probabilities of having hospitable exomoons (R. Heller, 2018). Beyond the basic orbital parameters of exomoons increased probabilities of being habitable are possible when a planet receives stellar flux reflection from other planets, has internal heating sources, has tidal heating or advanced atmospheric development in correlation with a magnetosphere. (R. Heller, 2018). Moons like planets can present with rings and rocky companions that can lead to detections if the moons orbital shadow is seen when the transiting host planet crosses a star. Probability of finding exomoons increase as our detection methods acquire precision. Future classifications of exomoons will redefine our conceptual ideas of potentially habitable worlds. Two examples of exomoon transit candidates are KID 6344983 and KID 4760478 (Kepler 1625-b-i). The possibility of Kepler 1625-b-i having exomoons exists but to date no exomoons have been clearly confirmed by a secondary observations. Leaving detections of exomoons nearly a blank page to be written upon.

III. Equilibrium Temperatures

Equilibrium temperatures indicate an exoplanets ability to have liquid water. If on average the energy coming in and going out from a star balance this is the planet's equilibrium temperature. A stars light or flux is energy received by a planet. Various stars emit different wavelengths of light throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. Larger planets like Jupitor, Saturn and Neptune exceed equilibrium temperatures indicating that these planets have internal heating sources. A planets albedo is determined by the materials that compose its surface and atmosphere. On earth the water that covers %71 of the surface absorbs most of the visible light our planet receives. Cloud and snow at the poles of earth reflect visible light while absorbing infrared light as heat. The terrain on earth varies of different types of sand and soil. When factors are combined to together earth has an albedo of ~30%. A planet like Mercury that has no atmosphere has a smaller albedo of ~6%. Higher reflectivity correlates with a higher planetary albedo. The adiabatic lapse rate of a planet correlates with how quickly the air in a planets atmosphere cools as elevation increases. To begin modeling exoplanetary conditions initial factors that can be considered are the planets albedo, adiabatic lapse rate, and equilibrium temperature. Study planetary thermal and chemical dynamics, pressures, compositions, core types, temperatures and energetic equilibriums will provide accurately balanced estimations.

IV. Habitable Zones

A Habitable Zone is the surrounding area near a star where temperatures allow liquid water to exist. The moist greenhouse or inner edge of a habitable zone is approximately ~340 Kelvins, here water vapour dramatically increases, and at ~373 Kelvins entire oceans will evaporate on earth like models. The opposite outer edge is the frost barrier, at which a planets temperature at approximately ~273 Kelvins water will easily freeze and the atmosphere will become opaque to stellar radiation. This outer edge can also be redefined as ~1.7 Astronomical Units away from a sunlike star. An Astronomical unit is the distance from earth to our sun. Additional factors that could extend habitability modes might be found in multi star systems. Two sources of energy received from stars or reflected light from nearby planets may enhance a planets equilibrium temperature. Added tidal heating, internal heat, advanced greenhouse ecologies, enhanced atmospheric dynamics with magnetospheres in correlation with the quantitative mass of an exoplanet may increase a planets ability to host liquid water. Increasing surface gravity may strengthen a planets magnetosphere aiding atmospheric structures that might make it harder for heat and atmospheric particle to escape into space.

V. Star Relations & Star Type

The greatest magnitude of known earth-like planets orbit Type M dwarf stars. These cooler dwarf stars can survive tens of billions of years longer than sun-like stars because of fuel conservation. M dwarfs are the most populous star type in the universe with a solar radius ranging up to ~0.6 times Sol and temperatures ranging up to ~3,900 Kelvins. M Dwarfs present much intrigue to scientific community researching life supporting worlds. Typically it is easier to detect a habitable world orbiting a M Dwarf with a closer habitable zone. The close proximity required for a planet to reside within a M Dwarf habitable zone presents multiple challenges to the existence and evolution of life. Habitable zone worlds in M Dwarf star systems experience increased X-Ray irradiances up to ~400 times stronger than earth. M-Dwarfs are known to have active flares and magnetic activity (R. Heller, 2018) that could sterilize a planet or prevent atmospheric developments.

Type K stars that are slightly cooler than our sun are the second most populous stars in the universe. They survive for tens of billions of years and present the perfect conditions for life and evolutionary processes. Type G stars like our sun having wider habitable zones are not as frequently found in the universe. Hotter end of Type G and F stars having habitable zones with orbital periods through the 500 - 700 day range are currently outside the limits of our detection methods currently as we need multiple transits found to confirm a planet. This gap in planetary detections leaves the greater majority of longer period planets in wide reaching habitable zones out of our early detections (Bryson, 2020).

Stars and planets very often show like qualities, smaller stars produce smaller planets (Fulton, 2018) and more massive stars produce more massive planets. To accurately estimate a planets radius and mass requires the ability to accurately estimate the radius of the host star. Stellar and planetary radius estimations are commonly derived from photometric estimations that have slight errors. With secondary reviews of a stars radius done by spectral analysis will improve %5 - %10 of fractional inaccuracies (Petigura, 2015) and further define precision star and planetary radius estimations.

VI. Early Spectral Analysis

Spectroposphy study of exoplanetary atmospheres notes the missing absorption lines of a planet and stars light spectrum gathered when the planet orbits a host star. Spectral lightwave studies gage how a stars light interacts with the components of an exoplanets atmosphere. Different molecules in atmospheres absorb different wavelengths of light, the missing absorption lines in a planets spectrum reveal which molecular compositions exist in the atmosphere. Oxygen and Ozone absorb wavelengths of light less than 300 nanometers while water absorbs most wavelengths of light over 700 nanometers. Increases of UV stellar radiations can decrease the accumulation of lighter gasses (Rugheimer, 2012). Atmospheres with dense heavy cloud cover and high reflection present increased observational difficulties (Crossfield, 2015). When Hawaii's Keck Telescope team performed spectral analysis of Kepler's habitable zone planets they found that the trace elements that support life here on earth also exist faraway on exoplanets throughout the universe. These distant planets were found to be abundant with hydrogen, oxygen, carbon, iron and the basic building blocks of Life. Carbon and oxygen were enriched in stars with planets, indicating that many exotic worlds are formed in carbon rich environments. The Kepler Space Observatory and Keck findings findings suggest that we could find more than two billion planets in our galaxy with life supporting capabilities. New technology like the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the James Webb Telescope (JWST) will be capable of classifying atmospheric compositions of super earths, neptunes and gas giants with ease (Cowan, 2015).

Carbon dioxide, methane, chloromethane, ammonia, nitrous oxide, oxygen, ozone, water, sodium and potassium are detectable by spectral analysis. Atmospheres are made of condensates, hazes and clouds, probing higher layers of an atmosphere will reveal molecular opacities. Greenhouse emissions that are highly viable with the ability to capture and recycle energy in a planets atmosphere. Greenhouse gasses increase global atmospheric warmings and carbon dioxide also absorbs sunlight without releasing energy, this increases atmospheric warming profiles. The signs of life and greenhouse gases leave spectral fingerprints on a planets atmosphere for us to see (Kaltenegger, 2011). Earth has a magnetosphere and atmospheric fields that shield us from harmful radiations and helps protect the evolution of life on earth. Studying planetary atmospheric structure and make-ups better allow us to understand a planets habitability, formation and evolution in time. Planets with less than 1.5 Radius Earth are mostly composed of rocky cores (Fulton, 2018). Earthlike planets contain quantities of lighter gases composing a planets atmosphere. Smaller worlds rocky worlds high in can posses magnetic fields that aids atmospheric development. Colder planets can have water, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. These elements that form the building blocks of life are a thousand times less abundant than the lightest gases. Lighter elements and gasses in atmospheres add to a planets total size, mass, surface gravity and atmospheric structure. Planetary core characteristics of albedo, pressure, density, structure, chemical and thermodynamic equilibriums form our early understanding of atmospheric profiling. Given chemical and thermal equilibriums define which species may remain abundant under different types of pressures, temperatures and make-ups. Star systems evolve over a time and every planet may one day reach a point when its lighter gases and water vapor is stripped away by stellar radiation and winds.

IIV. Many New Worlds

Early findings indicate that ~15% of solar type stars—roughly one in six—have a 1–2 Earth radius planet. These early results are a reflection of the capabilities of the detection methods used (Petigura, 2015). Missing gaps found in the prevalence of earth sized planets of less than 1.3 times earth radius are attributed to technical detection limitations and the current precision of radius estimations for planets and stars (Fulton, 2017). Larger planets of short orbital periods are easily detected by transit observances. As our observation techniques improve we will find new varieties of earth-like and non earth-like worlds in many different star systems with diverse definitions of habitable zones. Kepler 22-b is the first planet of its star system. It orbits a larger Type G like our sun and is theorized to have a rocky core with oceans covering its surface. This planet is a super earth with a radius ~2.38 times earth with an orbital period of ~289 days, it exists perfectly within the stars habitable zone where liquid water can exist. Kepler 22-b was one of the first earth twins to be detected. Kepler 186-f is also a super earth orbiting a cooler M-Dwarf star that is roughly half the size of our sun every ~129.9 days. This planet is theorized to be a large rocky world ~1.71 times as massive as earth residing comfortable within an M Dwarf stars habitable zone.

Kepler 452-b orbits a Type G star every ~384.8 days mirroring an earth with double the surface gravity being ~1.7 times earths radius and ~3.2 times as massive. Kepler 1544-b is another super earth that orbits a cooler Type K star every ~168 days residing near the outer edge of the stars habitable zone. This planet is theorized as a rocky super earth ~1.8 times earths radius and ~3.8 times as massive, with an estimated equilibrium temperature of ~270 Kelvins. Kepler 1606-b is another super earth orbiting a Type G star every ~196 days residing at the inner edge of its G Type stars habitable zone. Being slightly larger at ~2 times earths radius and 5 times as massive as earth this planet has an estimated equilibrium temperature of ~324 Kelvins. Kepler 1625-b is a giant planet orbiting a cooler Type G star every ~287 days residing near the inner edge of the stars habitable zone. Kepler 1625-b has a host star that is nearing the end of its life cycle with an estimated age of ~8.7 billion years. This world is known to potentially have an exomoon with approximate equilibrium temperature of ~346 Kelvins. Kepler 1638-b is a super earth that orbits a Type G star every ~259 days within the stars habitable zone. This planet is ~1.9 times earths radius and ~ 4 times as massive with an estimated equilibrium temperature of ~281 Kelvins. Kepler 1653-b is also a super earth orbiting a slightly cooler Type K star roughly ~70% as massive as our sun every ~140 days. This planet is ~2 times earths radius and 5 times as massive residing within the stars habitable zone at an estimated equilibrium temperature of ~284 Kelvins. One last interesting find is HD 35512-b a rocky super earth orbiting a Type K Star every ~54 days residing at the inner edge of the stars habitable zone. This planet is theorized to have a rocky core that presents with land and sky similar to earth. Atmospheric modeling predicts that HD 35512-b has an atmosphere composed of water and carbon dioxide. This planet was discovered in by Swiss Astronomer Stephane Udry and the University of Geneva’s Astronomy Team by radial velocity detections (Kaltenegger, 2011).

IIIV. Conclusion

Recent results of exoplanet surveys suggest that exoplanetary star systems exist abundantly throughout our observable universe. With continued exoplanet surveys and further technological advances our catalog of known exoplanets will continue to grow allowing us to better understand the universe we live in. Questions of life's existence throughout other star systems in the universe will be answered when we better understand exoplanet conditions and the key to life’s beginnings. Our universe masterfully creates the conditions and buildings blocks needed for life to begin, the rest is determined by nature. Current and future planned exoplanet surveys will reveal great multitudes of potentially habitable worlds. Newer space survey equipment like the planned Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) and the James Webb Telescope (JWST) will aid the spectral analysis of these many new exoworlds.

Works Cited

“NASA Exoplanet Archive” NASA, IPAC, CALTECH, JPL, ESU, 2020. NASA Exoplanet Archive. Cowan, N.B. “Characterizing Transiting Planet Atmospheres through 2025.” Arxiv.org, 2015, arxiv.org/pdf/1502.00004.

Bryson, Steve, et al. “The Occurrence of Rocky Habitable Zone Planets Around Solar-Like Stars from Kepler Data.” ArXiv.org, 3 Nov. 2020, arxiv.org/abs/2010.14812.

Crossfield, Ian J. M. “Observations of Exoplanet Atmospheres.” NASA/ADS, Oct. 2015, arxiv.org/pdf/1507.03966.pdf Del Genio, Anthony D., et al. “Albedos, Equilibrium Temperatures, and Surface Temperatures of Habitable Planets.” ArXiv.org, 17 Dec. 2018, arxiv.org/abs/1812.06606.

Fulton, Benjamin J., and Erik A. Petigura. “The California Kepler Survey VII. Precise Planet Radii Leveraging Gaia DR2 Reveal the Stellar Mass Dependence of the Planet Radius Gap.” ArXiv.org, 3 May 2018, arxiv.org/abs/1805.01453v1. Fulton, Benjamin J., et al. “The California-Kepler Survey. III. A Gap in the Radius Distribution of Small Planets.” ArXiv.org, 16 June 2017, arxiv.org/abs/1703.10375.

Heller, René, and Jorge I. Zuluaga. “Magnetic Shielding of Exomoons beyond the Circumplanetary Habitable Edge.” ArXiv.org, 3 Sept. 2013, arxiv.org/abs/1309.0811.

Kaltenegger, L., et al. “A Habitable Planet around HD 85512?” ArXiv.org, 17 Aug. 2011, arxiv.org/abs/1108.3561.

Kipping, David M., et al. “The Hunt for Exomoons with Kepler (HEK): II. Analysis of Seven Viable Satellite-Hosting Planet Candidates.” ArXiv.org, 6 Mar. 2013, arxiv.org/abs/1301.1853.

Lin, Z., and L. Kaltenegger. “High-Resolution Reflection Spectra for Proxima b and Trappist-1e Models for ELT Observations.” NASA/ADS, ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2020MNRAS.491.2845L/abstract.

M. Mayor, & E. Maurice. 1985, in Stellar Radial Velocities, ed. A. G. D. Philip & D. W. Latham, 299 Rugheimer, Sarah, et al. Spectral Fingerprints of Earth-like Planets Around FGK Stars, Mary Ann Liebert, 1 June 2012, dspace.mit.edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721.1/79721.

Petigura, Erik A, et al. “Prevalence of Earth-Size Planets Orbiting Sun-like Stars.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, National Academy of Sciences, 26 Nov. 2013, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24191033.

Searching The Skies: Astronomers Query Resources and Databases

Astrophysics Resources, Catalouges and Databases

SkyView

https://skyview.gsfc.nasa.gov/current/cgi/query.pl

NASA / IPAC / IRSA / USNO / GAIA / AKARI / 2MASS / GATOR - Radio - Infrared Sciences https://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu/applications/Gator/

STScI TESS Holdings Archive

Pan-StarrS1

MAST Catalogs - Kepler and Tess

JWST - TIC and CTL Release

https://outerspace.stsci.edu/display/MASTDATA



Arecibo https://phl.upr.edu/projects/habitable-exoplanets-catalog/calculators

Habitable Worlds

https://www.centauri-dreams.org/2014/10/03/how-common-are-potential-habitable-worlds-in-our-galaxy/?fbclid=IwY2xjawEq4MhleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHd8lSildqzGEMHZyDqVJ7g0cI7_8oeudPlvtaLWJ5x4qBCc8UGRRswejbg_aem__VsaPTM02w6OTp35YT5spA

Planetary Detection Projects

Cheops Expresso Euler Harps NGTS PRIMA SOPHIE SPHERE SPIROU NIRPS

https://www.unige.ch/sciences/astro/exoplanets/en/projects/

Planetary Detection Research Radial Veolicity - Moving Dynamics Transits Astrometry Direct Imaging Dynamics Astrophyics Imaging

https://www.unige.ch/sciences/astro/exoplanets/en/research/

Exoplanet Calculators https://www.omnicalculator.com/physics/exoplanet https://planetcalc.com/397/ https://www.vcalc.com/wiki/sspickle/Exoplanet+Calculator

Atmospheric Physics https://www.unige.ch/sciences/astro/exoplanets/en/research/atmospheric-properties-exoplanets/

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/ NASA IPAC EXTRAGALACTIC DATABASE QUERY SERVICE

Kepler's 10 Gems - 10 Potentially Habitable Worlds

Most Habitable Stars

In our search for new star systems and planets in our universe we have learned that many habitable worlds likely exist, it's still certain that some stars are just more habitable for life! There are many different types of stars in the universe. If you think about it, What lights the night sky might of been one of life's first questions. The answer is starlight, everything we see is made of starlight. Light allows us the see the universe, and allows the universe to exist itself. Stars, huh. Well there are many types of stars. These stars can be classified in many ways, by size, by brightness, by composition, or by ? A few types of stars are: Type O Stars; bright and massive Type B Stars; bright and massive Type A Stars; bright Type F Stars; massive Type G Stars; less massive Type K Stars; dimmer visable Type M Stars; cooler You could also classify them by different types of habilities or destinations. The habitable zone around a star defines the region where liquid water and life can exist. Larger stars have greater areas for life to flourish, and allow liquids to exist, but do no live as long as some cooler stars that conserve their energy. Smaller stars have smaller habitable zones. For example M red dwarf type star can have a life span of up to 1oo billion years and a K dwarf will similarly have a life span of up to 45 billion years. Stars, like trees plant and flowers have life cycles too. Perhaps even galaxies and the universe itself has a life cycle as well, energy has a mysterious way of being everything and anything.  

However, the amount of harmful radiation from different stars is estimated to be up to 500 times more intense for the habitable zone corresponding to a red dwarf star than a Type G Star like our sun, leaving some uncertainties in our estimation for the capability of life to thrive there. Type G Star's habitable zones are so close that any planet there would recieves varying amounts of X-Ray and UV radiation, and if a planet evolves too to it's star, it can be stripped of water and atmosphere. Scientists are now a little less enthusiastic about the odds of finding life around Type M Red Dwarfs because of this, perhaps unless conditions were just right.

If you were classying the ability for life to flourish on a planet, you might stop to think about different types of light. For example, A Type K Star planet in the habitable zone may recieve up to 25 times the amount of harmful radiations, than a planet our sun also. Red dwarfs actually make most of the Milky Ways Star Population with about 73% of stars being cooler red dwarfs. K dwarfs are estimated to make up about 13%.

As our own sun A Type G Star has foster life to flourish on Earth, these types of stars also are a great place to start looking for life in the universe as well. Our own sun is actually about halfway through it's lifespan; whereas a Type K Star would typically survive four times longer than our sun increasing the odds that life could evolve there. Earth will likely be uninhabitable within the next 1 to 2 billion years as stars like our sun slowly over time grow hotter and expand. This effect would push earth closer to the inner edge of it's habitable zone; having adverse effects such as the burning off earth's atmospheres and oceans, leaving earth looking much more like mars in the future. At the end of the earth's life cycle it will swell up and become a red giant star and swallow the inner planets entirely. Realistically, while we still have a great many years.. someday mankind will have to move to the stars to survive.

According to mathematical estimates of longevity and habituality Type K Stars would be the next best place to look for life supporting habitable zones. These slightly cooler Type K Stars are also three times as populous in our own Milky Way Galaxy. More than 1,000 type stars lie within 100 light years of our own sun. Some of the most famous Type K stars found to host planets are Kepler-442, Tua Ceti, and Epsilon Eridani. The stars Tua Ceti and Epsilon Eridani were also targets of the 1950's Project Ozma which attempted to find radio transmissions from extraterrestrial civilizations.

Kepler-442 is an extraordinary target because of it's K5V Star classification, being on the hot side of the K Spectrum it also hosts a solid rocky planets roughly two times the mass of Earth. Being one of Kepler's newly found super earths orbiting a Goldilocks Star perfect for life to evolve.

Kepler 442 also known as KIC 4138008 is located roughly 1200 light years away from Earth in the Constellation of Lyra, putting it beyond our immediate limitations for space travel. Discovered in The first Kepler mission this system is a gem because there are many complications to detect an earth sized planets via transit method.

If you would like to have a look for yourself follow these instructions to view Kepler 442 in the night sky.

Download Google Earth Pro for desktop

Load the program

Enter Sky mode (click the saturn icon)

Follow this link and copy the J200 coordinates

19 01 27.979 +39 16 48.29

Plug in coordinates in search box and Enjoy!

You will land in the Constellation of Lyra right next to Vega.

Sample of Google Earth Pro Keyhole Data

Exoplanet Hunting

in 2020 NASA is continuing the search for new exoplanets like earth, maybe even life. In 2009 they made History with the first time opportunity for citizens to work with NASA and Kepler Mission survey data. Volunteers aided the search to find other planets like earth. The Opportunity helped their team look a bit more fined tune into extensive databases Kepler and Kepler's New Light Data. Dubbed the Kepler Mission and K2. Now Continuing the tradition TESS Data is available for amateur scientists to work with.

Your efforts are welcomed because of the overwhelming amount of data and the fact that people are much more likely to discover planets that the technology used sometimes may overlook. Many discoveries have already happened, citizens scientists are welcomed to work with NASA and PlanetHunters.org

A Star Gazer's Guide to the Milky Way

Credit: ESA

A Star Gazer's Guide to the Milky Way

Gaia Sky is a free and open source software package that can guide your through your travels in the stars.

Gaia Sky serves as a visualization tool you can use to explore our very own solar system, the milky way galaxy and beyond. Once you have downloaded and installed this software package you can move freely throughout the cosmos guided by many different star data sets. This software package also comes planetarium ready being capable of producing videos for full dome systems, it can also run in 360 mode with spherical, cylindrical and hammer projections. You can also observe the Gaia satellite while in orbit around earth to learn how it moves and it's altitude and positions in the sky.



Gaia sky contains a simulation of our own Solar System complete with all the planets, dwarf planets, some of the satellites, moons, asteroids, locations, trajectories and more. If has the capability to add levels of detail based views into different Gaia release data sets such as: Gaia DR2, Gaia Sky Catalogues and different sections dedicated to parallax relative errors, each data set ranges from millions to hundreds of millions of stars available and classified by Gaia. Included also is additional astronomical and cosmological data such as star clusters (MWSC), nearby galaxies (NGB), and distant galaxies and quasars (SDSS).

This wonderful edition to twenty first century computing Gaia Sky is designed for astronomy fans and professional enthusiasts, it was developed in 2014 directly into the framework of the data processing consortium of ESA's Gaia Cornerstone Astrometry Mission. The special focus of this project is to deliver visualization of the Gaia catalogue and to provide further support and aid of related outreach materials. Additionally, Gaia sky has a wide range of other scientific applications ranging from purely recreational to scientific exploration.



Completely flexible by design, you can navigate the galaxy with your own controllers and gamepads. It has 6 stereoscopic modes with which you can select Anaglyphic (red cam), VR Headset, 3DTV, Cross Eye and Parallel View. You can implement SAMP commands to interoperate with SAMP-ready software like Topcat and Aladdin. Gaia is also compatible if you want to upload your own data sets in TGAS, NGB, SDSS, MWSC, FITS, CSV and many other formats. Gaia is also scriptable and extendable because it is compatible with Python Scripting to specialize and extend performance capabilities built to suit.

Functioning as a visualization engine Gaia Sky represents the multi-dimensional nature of our universe and data collected with positions, parallaxes, proper motions of objects, tangential velocities projected throughout the sky, radial velocities if available, magnitudes of objects and even colors. the software package includes a stereoscopic mode with five 3D properties, a planetarium mode and a 360 panorama mode with three different projections. In this software package you will find a scripting engine that is built-in with a comprehensive API, a Gaia Sky VR spinoff is also in the works and is now in functional state.



Gaia Sky Software is available for Linux, macOS and Windows.

The minimum system requirements for version 2.0.0 are the following:

CPU: Intel core i5 3rd generation
GPU: Intel HD 4000, Nvidia GeForce 9800 GT, Radeon HD 5670 / 1 GB VRAM / OpenGL 3.0
RAM: 4+ GB RAM
Disk: 1 GB of free space


Credit: ESA

The September 2016 release

A new all sky star catalog of our very own favorite galaxy the Milky Way has been released by Gaia. This mission lead by ESA started its scientific work in July 2014. This first release is based on data collected during its first 14 months of scanning the sky.

"Today's release gives us a first impression of the extraordinary data that awaits us and how that will revolutionize our understanding of how stars are distributed and move across our galaxy."

Will have information about positions (α, δ) and G magnitudes for all stars with acceptable formal standard errors on positions. Positions and individual uncertainties are computed using a generic prior and bayes' rule detailed in the "Gaia astrometry for stars with too few observations. A Bayesian approach" For this release approximately 90% of the sky will be covered.

"The beautiful map we are publishing today shows the density of stars measured by Gaia across the entire sky, and confirms that it collected superb data during its first year of operations” says Timo Prusti Gaia project scientist at ESA.

At the beginning of the routine phase a special scanning mode repeatedly covering the ecliptic poles on every spin was executed for calibration purposes. Photometric data of RR Lyrae and Cepheid Variable Stars including these high-cadence measurements will be released. The five parameter astrometric solution positions, parallaxes, and proper motions for stars in common between the Tycho 2 Catalog and Gaia will be released. The catalog is based on the Tycho Gaia Astrometric Solution.


Future releases may Include:

Five parameter astrometric solution of objects with single star behavior will be released under the assumption that at least 90% of the sky can be covered. Integrated BP/RP photometry, with appropriate standard errors for sources where basic astrophysical parameter estimation has been verified. Mean radial velocities for objects showing no radial velocity variation and for which an adequate synthetic template could be selected, under the assumption that this can be done for 90% of the bright stars on the sky.

Orbital solutions, together with the system radial velocity and five parameter astrometric solutions, for binary's having periods between 2 months and 75% of the observing time will be released. Object classification and astrophysical parameters, together with BP/RP spectra and/or RVS spectra they are based on will be released for spectroscopically and photometrically well behaved objects. Mean radial velocities will be released for those stars not showing variability and with available atmospheric parameter estimates.

Variable star classification will be released together with the epoch photometry used for the stars. Solar system results will be released with preliminary orbital solutions and individual epoch observations. Non single star catalogs will be released. Full astrometric, photometric and radial velocity catalogs will also be released. All available variable star and non single star solutions. Source classification plus multiple astrophysical parameters for stars, unresolved binaries, galaxies, and quasars. Some parameters may not be available for fainter stars.

The Search For New Worlds - NASA's Kepler Mission

NASA's Kepler Mission
The Search For New Worlds

Ever since the beginning of time mankind has gazed upon the stars with all the beauty of the heavens, wondering if we are truly alone on this sanctuary we call earth.

Never before have we possessed the technology and resources to answer this question before. NASA's Kepler Mission has newly illuminated our universe, we now understand that planetary and star systems like our own exist everywhere in the universe.

Our interpretation of the results will ultimately define how we perceive habitable zones and the many types of harmonic and chaotic planetary star systems that exist in our universe. We will learn more about universal elemental abundances, atmospheric compositions and conditions for life. Here we will find the future of planetary sciences.

The Kepler Mission provided researchers with over 3 years of continuous light data for over 503,506 stars in  our neighboring Lyrae, Draco and Cygnus star constellations. Someday we may even understand that exoplanets exist more commonly in the universe than stars. 

Results from the Kepler Mission have indicated that many more massive planets were found around massive stars. Information gathered allows analysis of the moving dynamics of star systems, atmospheric structures and with this information we can create planetary profiles.

To date all known planets have been discovered from a variety of techniques including transit surveys, radial velocities, gravitational lenses, interactions, infrared heat signatures, and visual confirmations.

From these we see giant gas planets, mini Neptune's, water worlds and many exotic super earth like planets. We have also find that binary and trinary star systems are abundant with planets as well, these systems may exist more frequently that single stars like our sun!



Binary and Trinary star systems tend to have large transit timing variations due to many gravitational interactions. Planets revealing transit timing variations hint the presence of other planets.

Planetary and star systems exhibit strong resonance via conservation of angular momentum; the key foundation of moving dynamics and star system harmonics. Information can be extracted revealing the details of moving dynamics, Keplerian Motion, orbital timings, planet to planet interactions, light travel time and spectral analysis.

A Habitable Zone is the area around a star where liquid water may exist, This defines whether or not a planet may be hospitable to life as we know it.

The inner edge or the hot zone is typically up to 340 Kelvins where water vapor dramatically increases and creates strong greenhouse atmospheric conditions. At 373 Kelvins Oceans evaporate entirely on earth like planetary models.



The opposite edge of the habitable zone is 273 Kelvins where water freezes. This is also about 1.7 AU from a sun-like star because planetary atmospheres become opaque to stellar radiation. In addition short period planets with non zero eccentricity hint the presence of other low mass planets. Internal planetary structures may be probed if 2 planets exist.

Exploring the results of the Kepler Mission below estimates now that up to %30 of stars may harbor earthlike planets that our technology may not be easily able to detect yet; we however do find many larger super-earth like planets. Our results also indicate that older red dwarf stars tend to be deficient of gas planets. Hot Jupiter's were missing from Kepler results possibly due to reflectivity. Hot Neptune's and super earths have been found most frequently.


Confirmed Planets 4,197

Detected By Kepler 2,622

Kepler Candidates 2418

Detected By K2 409

K2 Candidates 889

TESS Confirmed 66

TESS Candidates 2120

Ice Giants 1,250

Gas Planets 1,001

Super Earths 776

Terrestrial 348

By Detection Method

Astrometry 1

Imaging 44

Radial Velocities 686

Transit 2960

Transit Timing Variations 15

Eclipsing Timing Variations 9

Microlensing 64

Pulsating Timing Variations 2

Orbital Brightness Modulations 6

By Kepler Light Curves 2622

Transiting 2983