Latest / STEM Archives - The Children's Hour / Exoplanets
Transcript
- 0:01Coming up on The Children's Hour, we learn about exoplanets, the planets that are found outside
- 0:06of our solar system, with exoplanetologist Dr. Diana Dragomir from the University of New
- 0:12Mexico. Dr. Dragomir is part of a very small group of scientists who are searching the
- 0:18galaxy for exoplanets. We'll explore how they find them, what we know so far, and how we
- 0:26can all join the hunt. We'll even find out if they've found aliens yet. There's a learning
- 0:32guide with this episode at ChildrensHour.org. Look for exoplanets. Stick with us to learn
- 0:40more. The Children's Hour is an independent production of The Children's Hour Incorporated,
- 0:45a New Mexico based non-profit. We're distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio
- 0:51network. It's time for The Children's Hour. Kids Public Radio!
- 1:04Why did the planet have a chicken sitting on it? I don't know, why? Because it was an egg-xo
- 1:13planet.
- 1:16It's time for The Children's Hour. Kids Public Radio!
- 1:40Looking for a planet, for a planet, for a planet. Where I might rest my burrow for the night
- 1:48Brush out all his nettles and thank him for his company I'm looking for a planet in the
- 1:58sky I'm looking for an ocean, for an ocean on a planet. Where I might rinse the journey
- 2:07from my clothes And wash away my soreness in the music of the tide I'm looking for an ocean.
- 2:18Ocean on a planet I'm looking for a planet in the sky I'm looking for a mountain, for
- 2:29a mountain by the ocean. Where big cats and the grizzlies have their way. And the hills
- 2:37they give me shelter from the howling winds of winter I'm looking for a mountain, a mountain
- 2:45by the ocean, an ocean on a planet. I'm looking for a planet in the sky. I'm looking for a
- 2:56valley, for a valley near a mountain, where kindness is the way of everyone. neighbors
- 3:05all respect me and they even like my burrow I'm looking for a valley, a valley near a
- 3:14mountain. A mountain by the ocean, an ocean on a planet I'm looking for a planet in the sky
- 3:46Looking for a meadow, for a meadow in a valley. Where bluebells and geraniums prevail I can
- 3:57pick a bundle and make a fine bouquet I'm looking for a meadow, meadow in a valley. A
- 4:07valley near a mountain, a mountain by the ocean. An ocean on a planet, I'm looking for a planet
- 4:17in the sky I'm looking for a stable, for a stable in a meadow. Where I might rest my burrow
- 4:27for the night. Shout all his medals and thank him for his company Looking for a stable, stable
- 4:38in a meadow. A meadow in a valley, a valley near a mountain. A mountain by the ocean, an ocean
- 4:49on a planet.
- 4:55Looking for a planet in the sky
- 5:12Thats the Green Chili Jam Band looking for a planet from a CD called Coconut Moon. And that's
- 5:19what we're going to be doing today. We're going to be talking with people who actually are
- 5:24looking for planets. But before we get there, you're listening to The Children's Hour. I'm
- 5:30Katie Stone. I'm so happy to be with everybody today, including all these great kids on our
- 5:36crew. Hello. Hi! It's so nice to see everyone here. Who do we have with us? Hi, I'm Camila.
- 5:47Hello, it's Isaac. Hi, it's Evan. Happy day, it's Maya. Hi, it's Illuminata. Hi, it's Octavia.
- 5:56Hi, it's Thaniel. Cock-a-doodle-doo, it's Maya and Lou. Hi, it's Corbit. Hi, it's Airdrie and
- 6:02Flo. Hello, it's Zen. Hello, it's Amadeus. Well, everyone, thank you for being here today.
- 6:08I'm really excited about this show because we're going to be getting out of this world. We're
- 6:14going to galaxies far, far away or nearby, and we're going to explore exoplanets. Does anyone
- 6:23on the crew want to take a stab at what they think an exoplanet might be? A planet that
- 6:29is out of our solar system, I think. I think that might be right. Yeah, Corbit. An exoplanet
- 6:37is not a planet. Pluto is a good example. Pluto is an exoplanet. All exoplanets are technically
- 6:46in the solar system. They're just not actually planets. And there's a long set of rules describing
- 6:51what's a planet, what's an exoplanet, and what's what that I don't really have memorized. I
- 6:57think I would agree more with Maya. An exoplanet, from what I know, is a planet outside of our
- 7:04solar system. And I think what I think Corbett was saying was a dwarf planet and those are
- 7:11smaller celestial bodies. Well, this just goes to show we do have a lot to learn today
- 7:18on The Children's Hour. We're going to be focusing on exoplanets with a professor of physics and
- 7:23astronomy from the University of New Mexico, Dr. Diana Dragomir. And she's going to enlighten
- 7:30us about everything to do with exoplanets. And we're also going to learn the latest and
- 7:36greatest information about exoplanets and how they're being discovered today and how many
- 7:43there are as of right now. But speaking of Pluto, which I'm glad you brought up, Corbit,
- 7:50Pluto is very, very special here in the state of New Mexico where we are, because it was
- 7:56discovered by a New Mexican astrophysicist named Clyde Tombaugh. And so when Pluto was declared
- 8:03to be too small to be a legitimate planet. The state of New Mexico did something pretty unique.
- 8:10There was actually a piece of legislation that was passed to declare that in the state of
- 8:15New Mexico, Pluto will always be a planet. Today's show is mixed with great music and we have
- 8:22so much to learn together about exoplanets with Dr. Dragomir, but first. This song is for
- 8:30Pluto. And for all those who have ever found themselves on the outside looking in.
- 8:39I heard it on the news this morning not a planet anymore
- 8:53sank in I felt confused things would not be as they were before you first emerged in
- 9:061930 when Clyde Tombaugh spotted you in space and you were named by a young British girl
- 9:20What big rock could ever take your place? You'll always be a planet to me Pluto, you're
- 9:33the coolest icy mass in the galaxy Your orbit is eccentric and Neptune's path may intersect
- 9:44it Be a planet to me
- 10:04Scientists have said you're just too small
- 10:11Even smaller than the us-own moon But that's never bothered me at all.
- 10:22Some people say that you seem distant 3.6 billion miles from the sun. To think of you as just
- 10:38far out In my heart you're always number one be a planet to me. Pluto, you hold such a special
- 10:54place in astronomy. You may have been demoted, but I will always be devoted And you'll always
- 11:08be a planet to.
- 11:18Mercury and Venus are two amazing planets Earth and Mars and Jupiter are fine Saturn and Uranus
- 11:32and Neptune are great. But why do we have to stop with eight?
- 11:45Be a planet to me, To your mass, your every quality. There's no way to resist them. Cause
- 12:00you still rock my solar system.
- 12:06Be.
- 12:21Mark Burrows right here on The Children's Hour from Go, Galileo with Ode to Pluto. And
- 12:28I'm Katie Stone. Today on The Children's Hour, we are with Dr. Diana Dragomir. She's a professor
- 12:36of physics and astronomy at the University of New Mexico, and she is an exoplanetologist.
- 12:42Welcome to The Children's Hour, Dr. Dragomir. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here. We're happy
- 12:47you're with us too, Dr. Dragomir. So you heard the kids talking about what they think exoplanets
- 12:53might be. How did we do? So I think that there were bits of the right answer in what everyone
- 13:00said. An exoplanet is a planet around another star or other stars. That said, if we ever
- 13:13detect a planet or an object as small as Pluto around another star, Are we going to call
- 13:22it an exoplanet or an exo-dwarf planet? We don't know yet. We haven't quite gotten there. What
- 13:28makes an exoplanet an exoplanet? So an exoplanet is a planet around any star except our sun.
- 13:39Any of the stars you see in the sky at night, if there's a planet around those stars, that's
- 13:44an exoplanet. From how far have we been able to find exoplanets? I will tell you that
- 13:51some astronomers think that we have already detected exoplanets in another galaxy. So that
- 14:00is pretty far, but those planets, we're not all sure that we've really seen that.
- 14:08Sometimes you think you see a planet and it turns out it was just noise and you didn't
- 14:13see one. Otherwise in our own galaxy, well-- So if we are about-- the Earth is between the
- 14:22middle of the galaxy and kind of the edge of the galaxy where the spiral arms are,
- 14:29we've seen planets or have detected planets to basically like half that distance, so close
- 14:36to the middle of the galaxy, pretty far away. How do you detect exoplanets? Oh my gosh,
- 14:45how much time do we have? Well, so there's a number of different methods, but I'm going
- 14:50to tell you about the one that I like the best. Planets move around their own stars, just like
- 14:56we move around sun. um And if we're looking at a planet and star system, just from
- 15:05the right direction, we can actually measure when the planet passes in front of the star.
- 15:11And what that does is that it makes the star a little bit dimmer. So if you imagine you're
- 15:18out at night and you're looking at a street light and a big fly or a big moss passes
- 15:24in front of the street light, you might not see the fly because it's really fast and it's
- 15:28dark out, but you might see that the light is dimming a little bit. So basically that's
- 15:35how we're finding exoplanets as well. We're noticing that the star is dimming. just a tiny
- 15:42bit because this planet has gone swoosh kind of in front of it. And from that measurement,
- 15:48we can tell the size of the planet. It's kind of crazy. What is the bare minimum to have
- 15:56a planet be a planet? Maybe are you referring to Pluto losing its planet status? Well, it
- 16:02was a planet, but when the state said it is not a planet anymore, and that is that.
- 16:08So let me start by saying that Pluto is an amazing object. It doesn't really matter what we call
- 16:13it. The reason, it's really just about words. And calling an object a dwarf planet, which
- 16:21is what Pluto is now, is not a downgrade at all. It's really just words, honestly.
- 16:30To me, Pluto is as interesting as any of the other planets in the solar system. What's
- 16:36the most interesting exoplanet you found? There are so many. Well, so I will tell you that
- 16:43when we started looking for planets ever since then, we've been finding a lot of planets.
- 16:51So basically a lot of exoplanets around other stars, right, that are much closer to their
- 16:58star than even Mercury is to our sun. Was that surprising? Oh yeah, that was super surprising
- 17:06because you know, we have eight planets in the solar system and a whole bunch of smaller,
- 17:10you know, dwarf planets and they're all quite far from the sun by those standards. And then
- 17:19a lot of the exoplanets that we are finding are actually closer to their star than even
- 17:25Mercury is. So they're really, really hot because they're orbiting really, really close. So one
- 17:30year on. One of the most interesting exoplanets like that --is what like, okay, so-- it's not
- 17:38365 days. It's only 17 hours long. So one year, 17 hours long. I don't think that's quite
- 17:47the record, but it's pretty close. So that planet is really hot. It's probably just made
- 17:53of lava all over. It's probably like a molten planet. The surface is evaporating. You probably
- 17:59can't live on it, but what is it doing there and how did it get there and that kind of
- 18:05stuff. I'm really almost just as interested in those questions as I am in finding life
- 18:11on other planets. We're talking with Dr. Diana Dragomir. She is an exoplanetologist and professor
- 18:18of astronomy and physics at the University of New Mexico. And let's talk about life on other
- 18:24planets after this. You're listening to The Children's Hour. Look into the sky Peering
- 18:34deep in outer space while things are flying I asteroids, meteors, comets and stars Planets
- 18:45and moons, red craters on Mars Springs of Saturn, Milky Ways, Bora Borealis and Solar Pays
- 18:57I wanna go up there, but I'm down here High above into the stratosphere. Up there like an
- 19:05astronaut, but I'm a kid here Hey, come dream with me I see black holes in suns, stars
- 19:16and gases, light years away in molecular masses, sunspots, eclipses, satellites, moons in
- 19:26the day, and suns at night. Duck, it's me, you shout. Hey, duck, here comes an asteroid.
- 19:38Duck, here comes space debris. Duck. It's towards me Yeah, but I'm down here stratosphere
- 19:55up there like an astronaut but I'm a kid here hey come dream with me.
- 20:07Thats Steve Pullara And His Cool Beans Band. You're listening to The Children's Hour where
- 20:11we're learning about exoplanets. You can find a learning guide and activities that go with
- 20:17this episode at ChildrensHour.org. You're listening to The Children's Hour, Kids Public
- 20:24Radio. We'll be right back. The Children's Hour is a production of The Children's Hour,
- 20:30Incorperated. We're a New Mexico-based nonprofit organization supported by listeners just like you. You
- 20:37can learn more about us at childrenshour.org. The New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs
- 20:42supports The Children's Hour. Experience the magic of New Mexico's many cultural traditions
- 20:46at museums and historic sites statewide. More at nmculture.org slash traditions. Keep up
- 20:53with all the news of The Children's Hour by signing up for our monthly newsletter at ChildrensHour.org.
- 21:40Sail the
- 21:52near and.
- 22:10The year has become.
- 22:19Into space walking soon. Floating along, singing this song
- 22:36It's near and far.
- 22:42Shatter.
- 23:29The Planets Song is the BeatBuds right here on The Children's Hour. We're thinking and talking
- 23:34about exoplanets today with Dr. Diana Dragomir. She's an exoplanetologist at the University
- 23:41of New Mexico in the Department of Astronomy and Physics. You can find a learning guide
- 23:46for this episode at childrenshour.org. Look for Exoplanets. Dr. Dragomir, before the break.
- 23:54You were just talking about the most exciting exoplanet you found, and you're saying it's
- 23:58really, really close to the star compared to our planets, even closer than Mercury. And
- 24:05then you were talking about how this must be a very hot planet. But how can you possibly
- 24:11tell the temperature from here? It's just simple math. OK, moderately simple math. So. If
- 24:19we know how hot the star is and we know how close the planet is which we know from its
- 24:26orbit So how often do we see a dimming of the star which we call a transit when the planet
- 24:32passes in front of it? So we calculate the time between two dimmings and that must be
- 24:39the year of that planet So now we know the year and we know how close it is to the
- 24:45star and how bright the star is and we just calculate the temperature that way. Is Earth
- 24:50an exoplanet? No. Earth is a planet because it's orbiting the Sun rather than another star.
- 24:58Where does the word exoplanet come from? It comes from the word planet because these objects
- 25:04are like the planets in the solar system. They're round and smaller than a star. So that's why
- 25:10we call it planet. And the word exo means outside. So because these planets are outside the solar
- 25:18system, We call them exo for outside planets. Is there another planet that is out of our
- 25:25solar system that we can live on? Yeah, that's a good question. And in some ways, that's
- 25:32what a lot of people who study exoplanets are trying to find out. So it's a good question
- 25:39because the answer is we don't know yet. We're trying to find planets like the Earth,
- 25:46but part of the problem is that it's difficult to know if a planet is exactly like the Earth
- 25:53because we don't actually get pictures or photos of the planets. We get other kinds of information
- 25:59and we have to kind of, it's like a puzzle. We have to figure out from that information
- 26:04if the planet is the same size as the Earth, the same temperature as the Earth. Does it
- 26:09have an atmosphere? So it's kind of an indirect way of doing it. And so the question is,
- 26:16If we check enough of those answers, yes, can we say, okay, this planet we can live on?
- 26:23The problem is that it's really difficult to answer some of those questions. So we're getting
- 26:28there, but the answer is we don't know yet. So you know how when you find a planet
- 26:35and if you find any life on it, would you consider that still as an exoplanet? Yes, because
- 26:42it would still be a planet around another star. other than around a star other than our sun.
- 26:48So all the planets in the solar system are planets and then any planet that is orbiting, moving
- 26:55around any of the other stars in the sky is an exoplanet. Whether or not it has life on
- 27:01it. Is there any aliens on the exoplanets? That's a great question. We don't know yet.
- 27:11The way to find that out right now is to see if the atmospheres on those exoplanets look
- 27:22like the atmosphere on Earth. So that's the next step. That's what we're looking for now.
- 27:28And if we find something that has an atmosphere like Earth, then we can start thinking about
- 27:35maybe there's aliens there. But we haven't gone there yet because it's really difficult
- 27:40to see the atmospheres on exoplanets. What do you plan to do after you find an exoplanet
- 27:47that's like Earth and suitable for life? What do you plan to do? Me personally. Or like people
- 27:53who study exoplanets or like to move into the planet or something. I don't think we can move
- 28:00there. It's really too far away. It would take hundreds or thousands of years. more like thousands
- 28:08of years to get to even the closest planet to us. So what I will do is say yay and keep
- 28:17looking, see if other planets also have life. Because then we would know that life is not
- 28:23unique to Earth and you can have life happen on other planets as well, maybe even in different
- 28:29conditions, maybe without oxygen or maybe in hotter or colder conditions. So to me, that's
- 28:34really what's the most interesting part. I wish I could go to an exoplanet, but for now
- 28:39I'd rather just take care of the one we have. Would you try to contact life on that planet?
- 28:46If there is an intelligent life species, would you try sending a radio transmission? So first--
- 28:54yeah, so that's-- I'm glad you asked the question that way because first we need to figure out
- 28:59whether the life that we're detecting is just like microbes. or whether it is actually intelligent
- 29:07advanced life like humans on earth. I guess we would probably send a signal either way
- 29:14because you never know. Maybe microbes can be really intelligent too on another planet. So
- 29:20yeah, we would send a signal but probably by the time they even get it, we would no longer
- 29:26be around. And so it would have to be the next generation that waits for the response. So
- 29:32it be a pretty slow. you know, exchange, like really, really long email exchange. But I
- 29:39do think that that's a way to do it. What's the most recent exoplanet that you've seen and
- 29:45also what's the most closest one? The closest exoplanet to us is the planet around a star
- 29:52called Proxima Centauri C, which is pretty much the closest or second closest star to
- 30:00us. So if we were going to go anywhere, that's where we would go. So Proxima Centauri is the
- 30:06star. And then we name the planet with a little letter after the name of the star. So they
- 30:12don't get their own names. They just get a little letter. And then the first question, the latest
- 30:17exoplanet. Well, we're discovering exoplanets almost every day. But recently, there was
- 30:24a really cool one. And I don't remember its name because it's always like a number.
- 30:30But it was really cool because this time, remember how I said we don't really get photos of exoplanets?
- 30:36In some very special cases, we can actually photograph like the star and the planets
- 30:42orbiting it. So in this case, astronomers took a photo of the star and two planets orbiting
- 30:50that star and those two planets and well, that whole system is special because that star is
- 30:55very similar to our sun. So if those planets are, they're pretty big, but they might be
- 31:02similar to Jupiter and Saturn in the solar system, just because the stars is like the sun.
- 31:08So, I thought that that was pretty cool and kind of a big step forward for us. We're talking
- 31:13with Dr. Diana Dragomir. She's an exoplanetologist at the University of New Mexico. And we still
- 31:18have a few more questions for her, including how can we all jump on board and help in the
- 31:23discovery of exoplanets? But first, this is Stevie Q right here on The Children's Hour.
- 31:36The sun is a star, shinier than a new car And the planets orbit round it, just like they
- 31:45had found it It's a gravitational thing, like a yo-yo on a string And all the planets say
- 31:53they.
- 32:06Mercury's number one, closest to the sun. Venus is number two, the hottest planet I
- 32:14ever.
- 32:22This is known before the red planet.
- 32:42Number seven, that's gotta be close to heaven. Neptune's number eight, with a dark spot
- 32:49that's really great. Pluto's number nine, the last one in the line. And all the planets
- 32:58sing.
- 33:16The sun goes up and down and the earth spins round and round. These are a few of the things
- 33:24that...
- 33:28We're talking with Dr. Diana Dragomir, an exoplanetologist from the University of New Mexico. Find our
- 33:35learning guide for this episode at ChildrensHour.org. Look for exoplanets. Since light can only move
- 33:41so fast, how do we know if an exoplanet is still there when we discover it? That's a great question.
- 33:48We can actually do some calculations. Most exoplanets are there a long time, just like
- 33:56planets around the sun, you know, will be around for another like four or five billion years.
- 34:01So similarly, most exoplanets will also be around their stars for four to five billion years
- 34:08or longer even. But some planets, some of those planets that are really close-- or exoplanets,
- 34:13right,-- really close to their star, we think that in some cases they will actually spin
- 34:20into the star and eventually fall in. And we can calculate that. And we haven't yet found
- 34:27any planet that fell in that basically like it was there and then when we looked again
- 34:33it wasn't there anymore. But we think we found some that maybe in a thousand years or 10,000
- 34:39years from now, which is not that long in astronomy, might have fallen into their stars. So in
- 34:4610,000 years, if we look again, we may not see that planet there anymore. And usually
- 34:51we can predict those things. But yeah, most of them will be around for billions and billions
- 34:55of years. There's nothing to disturb them. How do you become an exoplanet expert and be able
- 35:01to learn about and find the exoplanet? To become an exoplanetologist or an astronomer. And then
- 35:08by the time you become an astronomer, you might decide you want to study something else.
- 35:12You have to go to college and you have to then go do a PhD after the first four years of
- 35:20college. And then there's usually some training after that. And then after all of that,
- 35:29usually about, --let's see, about 15,-- 12 to 15 years after you start college, you will
- 35:37probably become a professor. But the fun thing is that during all of that time, okay, the
- 35:4412 to 15 years, you can actually study exoplanets during all of that time. And once you become
- 35:50a professor, you actually spend less time studying them because you now have to teach. So the
- 35:55fun part is really going to college and the training part. How many exoplanetologists are
- 36:02there? Probably like 2000, something like that. A lot. There's definitely room for more. I
- 36:09had heard somewhere that exoplanetologists like yourself like to have help from just regular
- 36:15old people like us to look at these many, many photographs of the universe and try to find
- 36:22exoplanets. Is that true? Do you actually invite public participation? Yeah, I'm glad you asked
- 36:29that because just today I was responding to an email from um someone who works at Boeing.
- 36:37So, you know, designing airplanes, but for fun, he's helping us go through all of those
- 36:44images and finding exoplanets. And he just sent me one today that looks really interesting.
- 36:50And so, yeah, we don't have enough people to look at all of those stars, and so it'd
- 36:57be really nice to have extra help. Are kids allowed to help, too? I think so. I think there's
- 37:02some training to be done, but I don't see why not. That's so cool. Are you going to do it,
- 37:09Maya? I think I want my whole family to know. Well, you will have many more exoplanetologists
- 37:15thanks to kids hearing this and wanting to be part of this exciting research. Dr. Diana
- 37:21Dragomir, thank you so much for being with us on The Children's Hour. Thank you so much for
- 37:26having me on. It's been great.
- 37:33the universe is so marvelous it's startle us pardon my soliloquy though my name is Barnabas
- 37:41the scientist in charge of this world's search for alien life my telescopes pointed stars
- 37:45barely in sight. I write down how they flash cause maybe it might be a code we can grasp
- 37:49translating it right. My job is not a hassle Though my chance of success is low. Like a
- 37:55raffle. So you know I was baffled. When the elegant time capsule popped through a black
- 38:00hole. My heart's pumped mass of joy. As it dropped from the black void like an asteroid. Smiling
- 38:06so wide, losing my mind. First contact, what's that? There's music inside, huh?
- 38:30Yeah It took a day and a half to decode the strange math on a spacecraft. That's way fast.
- 38:35I got a great staff working hard. It's like payback for years spent searching stars. The
- 38:40message in the alien tongue was how to build a machine. In three days, it was done. I played
- 38:44the spun. The words called it a record player. It was the key to decoding the second lega.
- 38:49A message made a sound on a round disk. Interboundless depths of space, we found this gold record
- 38:54from an ancient civilization from an alien called Carl Sagan. We learned how the language works.
- 39:00It was music and words from a place called planet Earth We're skilled so great we couldn't
- 39:05match it Till we figured out the records better but you scratch it.
- 39:23Ya.
- 39:29Turn it up!
- 39:48You're listening to The Children's Hour, Kids Public Radio. We'll right back.
- 39:57The Children's Hour is making weekly learning guides for every episode thanks to the support of
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- 40:38The Children's Hour. Learn more at ChildrensHour.org.
- 40:45The Children's Hour shorts have dropped. We made short segments from our shows for educators
- 40:50to make the most out of our learning guides and activities. Season 1 of The Children's
- 40:54Hour shorts is at childrenshour.org. Look for the shorts! You're listening to The Children's
- 41:02Hour and today we're learning about exoplanets. This is The Nirks.
- 41:14Solar systems to explore and we should go different stars that have their own planets and their
- 41:22own solar systems would you like to go with me and see if we can meet some? the closest
- 41:31star to your Sun is Proxima Centauri. I'm an exoplanet that orbits it named Proxima Centauri
- 41:40b In a triple star system with stars Alpha Centauri A and B. I'm in a habitable zone Which means
- 41:50there could be life on 51 Pesos IV, also known as to medium. I was the first exoplanet found
- 42:01orbiting a star much like your son. I'm about half the mass of Jupiter, but with a larger
- 42:08diameter. My orbit takes only about four days because I'm very close to my star. Let's go
- 42:17meet an exoplanet. They orbit other stars. Some are very similar, some very different
- 42:26from ours. Strange and mystical worlds with wonders beyond imagination. Let's go find
- 42:34some exoplanets and see if we can meet them. 16 be also known unofficially as Cap Do-Mean.
- 42:43Like in Star Wars, a planet that orbits not one but two stars. My orbit is circumbinary.
- 42:49That means I travel around both stars instead of only one. see two sunsets on me when the
- 43:00day is done. My name is Methuselah, one of the oldest planets known yet. I'm about 12.7 billion
- 43:10years old, almost three times older than your planet. I have a circum-binary orbit around
- 43:17two burnt-out stars, a very old white dwarf star and a neutron star out star. The exoplanet
- 43:27J1407b. Also known as Super Saturn, but Saturn's got nothing on me. I have one of the largest
- 43:38North Ring systems found in the galaxy. About 200 times as large as Saturn's. I'm the new
- 43:45Lord of the Ring. Let's go meet an exoplanet, they orbit other stars. Some are very similar,
- 43:56some very different from ours. Strange and mystical worlds with wonders beyond imagination.
- 44:04Let's go find some exoplanets and see if we can meet them. An exotic exoplanet, I'm hat
- 44:13P7b. I have very different weather from yours, especially when it rains on me. Instead of
- 44:22raindrops you would see, showers of sapphires and rubies. I have clouds of corundum that
- 44:29could make those jewel scientists believe. I'm exoplanet wasp-twelve-me, and I'm a very
- 44:37strange sight to see. I'm all stretched out like a football, because my star is pulling
- 44:43on me. That's because I'm so close to my star, it takes just over one day to orbit. I'm one
- 44:50I eat up light, I absorb it. Let's go meet an exoplanet, they orbit other stars
- 45:02Some are very similar, some very different from ours. Strange and mystical worlds with wonders
- 45:10beyond imagination Let's go find some exoplanets and see if we can meet them T-O-I-700-D and
- 45:21I'm an exciting discovery! I'm in the habitable zone of my star, which means there could be
- 45:29life on me!
- 45:35similar they say I could have oceans and land and friends for you to meet someday when my
- 45:42star expanded to a red giant it almost vaporized me a sub dwarf star now I'm much closer to
- 45:50my star than other planets would dare to be I'm super fast a less than six hour orbit
- 45:56I'm so close that it's fun hotter than HAT and Kepler-70b and I'm hotter than your sun.
- 46:04My name is Trappist the Star, I have seven planets of my own. All unique and special,
- 46:12including three in the habitable zone. Their current names are Trappist, B-C-D-E-F-G-H.
- 46:21Together we have one of the most exciting solar systems discovered to this day. Nelly. You've
- 46:28met some exoplanets, they orbit other stars In their very own solar systems far outside
- 46:37of ours. Strange and mystical worlds with wonders beyond imagination. Keep looking at the stars
- 46:47and maybe you'll discover one you. That was The Nirks from their musical released in 2020
- 47:01called Meet the Exoplanets. And before the break, you heard Secret Agent 23 Skidoo.
- 47:14You're listening to The Children's Hour. I'm Katie Stone. We're learning about exoplanets
- 47:19today on the show. These are planets that orbit stars outside our own solar system. It's
- 47:27only very recently in astronomy that exoplanets have even been able to be detected, with the
- 47:33first being spotted in the early 1990s by a team of scientists using images from the Hubble
- 47:40telescope. which orbits around the Earth above the distortion of our atmosphere. Since then,
- 47:46thanks to having telescopes on spaceships and other satellites that allow us to see clearly,
- 47:52scientists have discovered nearly 6,300 confirmed exoplanets. But very recently, a group of scientists
- 48:03think that they have discovered more than 10,000 new exoplanets. These astronomers are using
- 48:10the images captured by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, also called TESS, which
- 48:18is orbiting the Earth and operates four cameras. As our guest Dr. Diana Dragomir explained,
- 48:25exoplanets are discovered by using photos of space over time. These photos will see when
- 48:32a transit of a planet is happening across the face of its star. A transit is when the planet
- 48:38passes between the star and our view of the star, so scientists will see the star slightly
- 48:45obscured by the planet on its orbit around it.
- 48:52NASA estimates that there are at least 100 billion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone. And
- 49:00of those, they suspect over 300 million of them could be habitable by humans. That means
- 49:08we might be able to live on them. Even still, we need to take care of this planet that we
- 49:14live on today. You can find out a lot about exoplanets and how you can join the hunt. by
- 49:21going to ChildrensHour.org and find the Exoplanet episode. There we've posted lots of links,
- 49:29including one to NASA's exoplanet site. It may not be realistic to go visit an exoplanet,
- 49:35but it is realistic to find one. Maybe you'll join the search and find one yourself.
- 49:46The learning guide and activities for this episode as well as links to NASA's exoplanet site are
- 49:50at childrenshour.org. Just look for exoplanets.
- 49:57This is Charity and the JAMband, right here on The Children's Hour.
- 51:12I'm
- 51:20Stardust we.
- 51:31Congratulations, on just this moment.
- 51:52Singing love songs to the.
- 51:59We are shiny, we are huge, we are tiny, we are ancient, we are new.
- 52:15We are.
- 52:20We are.
- 52:27Stardust, we are gold.
- 53:58You've been listening to the Children's Hour show on exoplanets. You can find so much more
- 54:03information at childrenshour.org. Look for exoplanets. I'm Katie Stone and we just have time for one
- 54:10more. This is Michael Franti. We'll catch you next time. If I could see Earth from outer
- 54:17space, all of the stars, through the human race, through all of the people and the streets
- 54:23that I once knew. If I could see Earth from outer space. Through all of the stars to the
- 54:30human race. No matter where I go I still come back to you.
- 54:39So high, so high
- 54:48see people in the cities, in the villages and squares. Selling in the marketplaces, dancing
- 54:53everywhere. Would I see ladies in the beauty parlor doing hair? And teenage soldiers with
- 54:58their guns up in the air. Would I see a hit list of the species that are gone? Or would
- 55:03I be a witness to the world dropping bombs? Would I see the rainforests, Amazon down? Or
- 55:08would the whole world sing one song? If I could see Earth from outer space, through all of
- 55:13the stars, through the human race. We go from outer space, through all of the stars to the
- 55:25image.
- 55:34still come back to you
- 55:56I've been
- 56:17from outer space, through all of the stars to the human race, through all of the people and
- 56:23the streets that I once knew. If I could see Earth from outer space, through all of the
- 56:31stars to the human race, no matter where I go, I'll still come back to you.
- 56:39I still come back to you
- 57:07from outer space. Through all of the stars to the human race. Through all of the people and
- 57:13the streets that I once knew. from outer space, all of the stars to the human race. No matter
- 57:23where I go, I still come back to you.
- 57:58The Children's Hour is produced by The Children's Hour Incorporated, a New Mexico non-profit.
- 58:04You can find photos, playlists, learning guides, and activities for every episode at ChildrensHour.org.
- 58:10Today's episode was written and produced by me, Katie Stone, with production help from
- 58:17Sarah Gabrielli, McKenzie Graunke, and Thaniel Lentz. Our learning guides are written by
- 58:23Amber Scheele. You can find this one at ChildrensHour.org. Look for Exoplanets
- 58:33Find our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or go to our patreon.com slash The Children's Hour.
- 58:36Or ask your smart speaker to play The Children's Hour podcast.
- 58:41Our theme music was written by C.K. Barlow.
- 58:44The Children's Hour is distributed by Native Voice One, the Native American radio network.
- 58:50Thanks for listening to The Children's Hour, Kids Public Radio. © 2026 The Children’s Hour Inc. All Rights Reserved.