Future Space Exploration
Will the discovery of extrasolar planets continue to rise?
Answered by
Dr. Evgenya Shkolnik
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Dr. Evgenya Shkolnik
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Dr. Evgenya Shkolnik Astronomer, Lowell Observatory
TRANSCRIPT:
It's just a matter of getting bigger and better telescopes to look at fainter and farther away stars, and then get to smaller and smaller planets.
At first, we were only sensitive to the most massive planets because they were the ones having the largest signature on the star. Now, as the technologies are getting better and better, the telescopes are getting bigger, and the spectrographs we use to get the velocities are having higher resolution and higher precision, we're only going to get to smaller and smaller planets. And now, the statistics are showing that most planets are actually smaller planets. They're not these giant hot Jupiters, and that's very valuable.
Still Curious?
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What are some of the big challenges ahead for astronomy?
Answered by Dr. Lisa Prato and Dr. Jeff Hall
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Do orbiting observatories make telescopes obsolete?
Answered by Dr. Jeff Hall
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Why should governments continue to fund space research?
Answered by Michael Massimino
