Exoplanets Crash Course

Alien planets are faint, far away, and sitting right on top of their parent star, so it's difficult to get ___

• indirect evidence
• direct evidence
• anecdotal evidence
• circumstantial evidence

The small movement of a star due to an orbiting planet is called ___

• centripetal motion
• reflexive motion
• retrograde motion
• centrifugal motion

The first confirmed detection of planets outside our solar system occurred in which year?

• 1952
• 1972
• 1992
• 2012

A planet outside of our solar system that orbits a star is officially called ___

• an alien planet
• an exoplanet
• a martian planet
• a distant planet

The first discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a star very much like the Sun occurred in the year ___

• 1955
• 1975
• 1995
• 2015

As the host star of the exoplanet makes its little circle, its light will undergo a ___

• polarization shift
• reflexive shift
• Mach shift
• Doppler shift

A more massive planet pulls harder on the star, making it move ___

• more quickly
• more slowly
• erratically
• imperceptibly

Giant gaseous exoplanets that orbit very close to their parent star are called ___

• "hot Jupiters"
• "quick Saturns"
• "short period Saturns"
• "high rate Jupiters"

When a planet passes directly in front of its star, the event is called ___

• a transit
• en passant
• a transition
• a permutation

The beauty of transiting exoplanets is that the amount of starlight blocked tells you ___

• how far away the planet is
• how big the planet is
• the density of the planet
• the mass of the planet