1 Project Description For nearly 20 years, astronomers have been monitoring the brightness of distant stars in an attempt to determine whether or not any of them host a planetary system. A measure of a star's brightness as a function of time is known as a light curve. Periodic fluctuations within a star's light curve are an indication that planetary transits may be oceurring, where a planet is periodically passing between Earth and the distant st g a lemporary decrease in its brightness (although fluctuations can be caused by other astrophysical phenomena as well!). Over 3000 conlirmed exoplanets have been detected via this Transit Method, mostly due 1o the Kepler Space Satellite and the Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite. In Project 3, you will be provided with a simulated light curve that is comparable to those studied by astronomers today. Through an analysis of this light curve, you will determine whether or not your target star has any planets orbiting around it and what some of their properties are. You will also be asked to infer what other properties the planet(s) may have and evaluate its habitability. Both course materials and independent sources will have to be consulted in order to complete this project. Be sure (o cite any sources used in your analysis, caus 2 Data The target star that was studied by your fictitious telescope has a mass, luminosity, radius, and temperature of 0.23 M. 0.005 L. 0.25 AU and 3031.10K. To access the observational data, go 10 link posted on eClass and find the .csv file named after your student number. A small portion of the data is illustrated in Figure 1. If you don't have experience with comma separated values (esv) files, note that they can be opened with Microsoft Excel. However you may use any software program that you wish (e.g Google Sheets. TOPCAT). Each file contains meas s light curve, with the first two columns marking the time of a brightness measurement (in years) and the relative brightness. For this project, we will ignore measurement uncertainties that typically come with this type of data. I highly recommend first trying to reproduce Figure 1 to make sure you are handling the data correctly, however a reproduction of Figure 1 is not necessary for your report. 3 Analysis Your report should begin with an Abstract (imaximum 250 words) that summarizes your findings and an Introduction (maximum 500 words) that outlines our motivation for finding exoplanets and how the transit method works. The rest of your report should be followed by sections titled Results, Analysis, and Bibliography, which have no word limits. For your analysis, make a plot of the entire light curve and then create a zoomed-in graph of one transit for each confirmed exoplanet. Note that, just like real observations, there are some times when it was not possible to observe the target star. So be sure to choose a well resolved transit to plot as your zoomed-in image. Also be sure the axis are properly labelled and the axis range is appropriate to view the transit event such that the detailed shape of the transit can be seen. Your submitted report should contain a section with all the necessary figures in the Results section. From these figures, answer the following questions and include them in the Analysis section of your report. a) How many exoplanets are you able to confirm are orbiting your target star? How do you know? |2 marks, approx. 25-100 words] b) How many unconfirmed exoplanets do you have orbiting your target star? How do you know and why are they unconfirmed? [2 marks, approx. 25-100 words] For the confirmed exoplanets that you have discovered, what are their orbital periods and size (e.g. radius)? Put the data in a table and explicitly show your calculations below the table for one exoplanet. [4 marks| c d What properties of the confirmed exoplanets can you derive from the information given, other than their orbital periods and radii? Put the data in a table and explicitly show your caleulations below the table for one exoplanet. [4 marks] What can you say about the habitability of this planet to life-like-us based on the evidence alone? [2 marks, approx. 235-100 words| e ) Would your analysis of any exoplanets that you deemed habitable in the previous question change if, through transit spectroscopy, you leamn the exoplanet has a 90.00atm atmosphere that is 96.00% carbon dioxide? Explain your reasoning [2 marks, approx. 25-100 words] g) How confident are you in your conclusion about each planet's habitability? What informa- tion would you need to increase your confidence. Be specific! [2 marks, approx. 25-100 words] Finally, end your report with a Bibliography section if you used any additional sources. You should also have in-line citations throughout the report wherever the information was used. LCOC et asploryihm Hersds e e e 4 A oA i | 0.999 0.998 0.997 4 0.996 - Relative Brigthness 0.995 0.000 0.023 0.050 0.075 0.100 0.125 0.150 0.175 Time (Years) Figure 1: Portion of your simulated light curve, which is a plot of relative brightness versus time (in years)