Glossary term: Exoplanet
Description: An exoplanet, or extrasolar planet, is a planet located outside the Solar System. Their existence was theorized from the 16th century and observational research was started in the 19th century to find them. The first confirmed exoplanets were discovered in the 1990s. Of these, the first confirmed to be orbiting around a star on the main sequence was the exoplanet Dimidium, indirectly discovered at the Haute-Provence Observatory. This exoplanet is orbiting the star 51 Pegasi, a yellow subgiant and was discovered in 1995. Since then thousands of exoplanets have been identified.
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
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beta Pictoris b
Credit: ESO/A.-M. Lagrange et al. credit link
License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
The orbit of beta Pictoris b
Credit: ESO/Lagrange/SPHERE consortium credit link
License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
Related Activities
Can you find the exoplanet?
astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website) Description: Find the exoplanet and determine its size using data from the Spitzer Space Telescope!License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
Age Ranges: 14-16 , 16-19 Education Level: Secondary Areas of Learning: Guided-discovery learning , Modelling , Observation based , Problem-solving , Social Research , Technology-based Costs: Free Duration: 3 hours Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Using mathematics and computational thinking
Measuring an exoplanet
astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website) Description: Let's learn about exoplanets and how to measure their size!License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
Age Ranges: 12-14 , 14-16 Education Level: Middle School , Secondary Areas of Learning: Observation based , Problem-solving Costs: Free Duration: 2 hours Group Size: Group Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Developing and using models , Using mathematics and computational thinking
Exoplanet in a box
astroEDU educational activity (links to astroEDU website) Description: Build a "transit simulator" in a box using some very simple material and your cell phone!License: CC-BY-4.0 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) icons
Age Ranges: 14-16 , 16-19 Education Level: Secondary , University Areas of Learning: Modelling , Observation based , Project-based learning , Social Research , Technology-based Costs: Low Cost Duration: 3-6 hours Group Size: Group Skills: Analysing and interpreting data , Asking questions , Developing and using models , Planning and carrying out investigations
