Tahir Yaqoob - Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems

There is a quiet revolution going on. An unprecedented numberof planets outside of our solar system(exoplanets, or extrasolar planets) have been found, withan explosion in the number of discoveries in recent years.The collective human consciousness has arrived at a place thatwas inaccessible not long ago.Once upon a time, humanity hadnot even conceived questions such as,Are there planets beyondour solar system? or Is there intelligentlife on other planets?Find out what has been happening in this rapidly advancingarena of human exploration, what these extrasolar planetsare like, and why some traditional ideas facebeing thrown out.Get up to speed on the new science with Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems. The book isaimed at the layperson, offering translations of astrophysics intoplain language,yet it has enough depth in annotated reference notes to the original scientific literature that it willalso be useful for those with a greater sciencebackground, including teachers and professional scientists. The book will help educators to begin to incorporate the study of extrasolar planets into the curriculum at all academic levels.

Tahir Yaqoob, Ph.D.

2011 Tahir Yaqoob. All rights reserved.Fourth edition, December, 2012. No substantial changes in the text relative toprevious editions. Principal update is a new cover. First eBook edition published October, 2011.

Cover image used by license.Cover design 2012 Tahir Yaqoob.

No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, distributed, transmitted,or stored in a retrieval system of any kind,by any means whatsoever, without the permission ofthe copyright holder. However, brief excerpts(totaling less than 300 words) may be quoted in literary review articleswithout permission. This eBook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. It may not be resold or given away to other people.If you would like to share this book with another person, pleasepurchase an additional copy for each person you share it with.If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it wasnot purchased for your use only, then you shouldpurchase your own copy. Please purchase only authorizedelectronic editions, otherwise other people will be compensatedfor work that they did not do. Thank you for respecting the hard workof the author.

This book is a publication of New Earth Labs(Education and Outreach),newearthlabs.com.This book has not been endorsed by any institution mentioned in the text,and any perceived implication of endorsement is unintentional. A print version of Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems isavailable and its ISBN is 978-0-9741689-2-0.

Title: Exoplanets and Alien Solar Systems
Author: Tahir Yaqoob, Ph.D.
Subject Category Keywords:1. Science; 2. Astronomy; 3. Astrophysics;4. Exoplanets; 5. Extrasolar Planets; 6. Physics; 7. Space Science; 8. Planetary Science.
Subcategories:
Science, Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science;
Astronomy, Extrasolar Planets; Astronomy, Exoplanets;
Physics, Astrophysics and Space Science, Planetary Science, Extrasolar Planets.

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Dr. Tahir Yaqoob is an astrophysicist and educator withover 25 years of experience. Heobtained a B.A. and an M.A. in physics from the University of Oxford,England, and a Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Leicester, England.He has tutored and mentored studentsacross the entire academic range,from students at elementary school to those in Ph.D. programs.He has also trained postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers tobecome established scientists and professors in physics and astrophysics.Dr. Yaqoob has publishedover 120 research papers in peer-reviewed international journals andis the author of the book What Can I Do to Help My Child with Math When I Don't Know Any Myself? He workson NASA-funded astrophysics research projects and he is also a member ofthe editorial board of the international peer-reviewed journalISRN Astronomy and Astrophysics.

Whatever you were doing before reading this, take yourmind away from it, andimagine that you are outside, barefoot on a pebbly beach,looking out at the vibrant blue ocean in front of you.It's slightly chilly. Feel the cool windrunning against your face. Breathe in and smell the rawness ofthe Earth around you. Clouds move out of the way and thewarmth of the Sun caresses your face. Hear the relentlessbut soothing rhythm of the wavy water. Feel the hard stone underyour feet. Your eyes feast on the view of the blue abyssin front of you. You are being nurtured from head to toe. But youare standing on a planet that is hurtling through anunforgiving vacuum at an unimaginable speed ofover 60,000 miles per hour (about 100,000 kilometers per hour). Yet you stand peacefully as one,with this colossal ball of rock and water that protects you andgives you life. Up in the sky rages a hydrogen furnace ofincredible dimensions, that has faithfully served your planet for fivebillion years, so that it may give you life.

In the modern trappings of existence it is so easy to forget that you live on a planet. Just beyond home is an environmentthat is so lethal that it's hard to believe the picture describedabove could exist. Cosmic rays that could devastate your atomicmake up. Electric and magnetic fields that could instantly put your lights out.X-rays and other radiation that could fry youin an instant. Temperatures socold that you would shatter into a billion fragments. A vacuumthat would suck the life out of you. All of this is not very faraway. Yet you can stand on your planet, look around at the beautythat cocoons you, and feel like you are the most fortunate beingin the Universe.

In this book we will connect with a conversation that has permeated humanity throughout history. A conversation that isthe manifestation of a collective consciousness that goes back to a time beforewe even knew what a planet was, before we knew how to make fire,all the way back to whenever self-awareness arose.A very long chain of developments spanning billions of years(starting from the first cells) led finally, in the 1960s, to one species onEarth leaving the planet. Now, since the 1990s humanity has entereda new phase in which we can now take a peek at other planetsoutside our solar system.When we talk about planets beyond our solar system, remember thatwe are continuing an ancient endeavor to understand ourselves.There is something that is at once fascinating, mind-boggling, and evena little bit sad about this. Imagine going back in timehalf a million years or so and meeting with your ancestors.Even if you could communicate with them, how would you even begin to explainto your ancestors what a planet is? You could not do it. The collective conceptual machinery of the human race had not advanced sufficiently for your exposition to haveany meaning. A stupendous number of advances in conceptualizationand knowledgethat spanned thousands of generations had to be made first.If you downloaded your knowledge of the planets, gravity, atomicstructure, stellar evolution, and the like onto your ancestorsyou would be branded as a deviant nutter.