Listing all results (18)
Exoplanets
In this Teaching Astronomy and Space video, produced by the Institute of Physics (IOP), Teachers TV and Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), Don Pollacco introduces us to SuperWASP, one of the most successful exoplanet finding instruments in the world....
Exoplanets
This resource has been...
Exoplanets
This animated clip explains how planets outside our solar system are difficult to see because they get lost in the glare of the star they orbit. The clip briefly mentions Doppler shift, dimming through transit as detection techniques that enable us to infer what the planet is made of, and explains what the...
Exoplanets
In this lesson, students will be introduced to the advantages of big telescopes and the use of telescopes to do astronomy across the whole electromagnetic spectrum. They will then explore the transit method of detecting exoplanets (either practically, or using real astronomical data) and use mathematics to...
Exoplanets are planets that orbit stars other than our Sun.
This collection was developed by the Institute of Physics to help bring this new and exciting area of research into the classroom. It consists of five practical activities matched to the 11-14 curriculum.
Each of the activities is standalone...
Exoplanet atmospheres
In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students use simple diffraction gratings to observe the spectra from different sources, and deduce how scientists can work out which chemicals are present in an exoplanet’s atmosphere. When an exoplanet passes in front of its star, some of the starlight is...
The Transit Method
In this activity, developed by the Institute of Physics, students use a lamp and polystyrene balls to model how astronomers detect exoplanets using the transit method. After completing this activity, students should: *Understand that the transit of a planet in front of its star temporarily reduces the star’s...
Day and Night, Seasons
In this activity developed by the Institute of Physics, students model the motion of a planet around a star and investigate how day and night and seasons may be different on other planets. Working in pairs or small groups, students demonstrate night and day and seasons to each other. They can then go on to model...
Journey times to alien worlds
Produced by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, this booklet uses the context of exoplanets and alien worlds to develop students understanding of speed, distance and time. Included is an online video that discusses where and how we might find alien worlds. Questions and answers are included that test a student’s...
These videos are excerpts from the We Are Aliens! planetarium show. They provide good starter activities for looking at life within our universe. They explore life within our solar system and the Earth and other planets that may contain life. The exoplanets videos go on to look at the possibilities of life outside...