1. Solve for the Jupiter mass and separation of the three planetary systems that you choose under the catalog called Four Sample Stars. Note that you are to solve for three different systems using three different combinations of detector parameters (Case I, II and III) as specified at the bottom of the interactive exercise page as specified under Lecture D in Module 5: these means doing 9 separate simulations and report on whether or not a successful detection of a planetary "wobble" curve was achieved. In most cases, there will not be a successful detection and you need to think about and report on why that is the case.

Download this work sheet to record all of your results and submit your work when done

For each star, the worksheet contains lines to a) record the mass of the hypothetical planet, b) record the distance of the hypothetical planet and c) the most important part argue whether or not the data is good enough to even perform a credible fit - in many cases the data is not good enough and you need to look at it and explain why.

Note: submit the answers to the remaining questions via regular email to uohomework@gmail.com

2. Research and describe the Gliese 581 planetary system which has recently been detected. How does this planetary system differ from other exosolar systems detected to date and why are astronomers relatively excited by this system?

3. In the class notes we make use of the Drake equation as providing a statistical estimate of the number of civilizations that might exist in our Galaxy and are capable of communication. Recently, however, some scientists have argued that the Drake equation is an inaccurate description. This new theory is known as the "Rare Earth Theory" (by Ward and Brownless). Do some research on this new theory and identify what the key components of this theory are that suggests planets like the Earth are much rarer than we think they are.

4. Consider our galaxy to be a very thin circular disk of stars of radius approximately 40,000 light years. If there are currently 1000 civilizations in our galaxy capable of communication, what is the approximate separation of these civilizations (in units of light years) if they are uniformly (e.g. equally spaced) distributed within this circular disk? (it helps to solve this problem if you draw a picture of a circle with some dots in it, uniformly space).