WEBVTT FILE

1
00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:03.179
Marc Kuchner: I don't know--when I was growing up, there was no such thing as planets around other

2
00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:06.150
stars. If you were to talk about it at a scientific meeting, people would laugh at

3
00:00:06.150 --> 00:00:12.700
you. Not that I was talking at scientific meetings when I was in high school, but

4
00:00:12.700 --> 00:00:14.560
so I'm told.

5
00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:24.880
(music)

6
00:00:24.900 --> 00:00:32.500
Jennifer Wiseman: Planets are very small compared to the stars that they orbit. They're also very dim.

7
00:00:32.500 --> 00:00:39.040
Marc Kuchner: For example, the Earth is ten billion times fainter than the Sun--ten billion times fainter.

8
00:00:39.040 --> 00:00:46.840
Jennifer Wiseman: It's kind of like trying to see a firefly next to a lighthouse. It gets lost in the glare.

9
00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:48.920
(music)

10
00:00:48.920 --> 00:00:54.280
Marc Kuchner: The Hubble Space Telescope takes pictures of nearby stars and uses a

11
00:00:54.280 --> 00:01:00.340
special tool called a coronagraph and the coronagraph blocks out the light from the star.

12
00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:03.060
Aki Roberge: It's a fancy way of putting your thumb over the star,

13
00:01:03.060 --> 00:01:06.800
basically, so you can see something faint that is right next to it.

14
00:01:06.800 --> 00:01:09.660
(music)

15
00:01:09.660 --> 00:01:13.900
Jennifer Wiseman: We can also use Hubble and other telescopes to study regions

16
00:01:13.900 --> 00:01:16.080
where we think planets might be forming.

17
00:01:16.080 --> 00:01:22.660
Marc Kuchner: We see in images from Hubble, we see these rings of dust around nearby stars.

18
00:01:22.660 --> 00:01:27.240
Aki Roberge: Well what I observe with Hubble are those disks.

19
00:01:27.260 --> 00:01:32.929
Those disks of gas and dust around the young stars, in which we think the dust

20
00:01:32.929 --> 00:01:41.000
grains are starting to clump together and build up into pebbles, rocks, asteroids, comets, Earths.

21
00:01:41.000 --> 00:01:42.440
(music)

22
00:01:42.440 --> 00:01:47.620
Jennifer Wiseman: We're finding baby solar systems by using Hubble and other telescopes, including sort of

23
00:01:47.630 --> 00:01:52.610
ground-based radio telescopes that can peer into these disks around stars and

24
00:01:52.610 --> 00:01:59.420
see young planets or regions where young planetary systems are forming.

25
00:01:59.420 --> 00:02:03.980
Aki Roberge: You know, the study of exoplanets is only a little over 15 years old.

26
00:02:03.980 --> 00:02:07.560
Marc Kuchner: We've discovered more than 400 extrasolar planets now.

27
00:02:07.560 --> 00:02:10.560
(music)

28
00:02:10.560 --> 00:02:16.560
Aki Roberge: You know, we're still just beginning to understand how the processes

29
00:02:16.560 --> 00:02:22.740
that formed our own solar system, also formed these really diverse types of planets.

30
00:02:22.740 --> 00:02:24.540
(music)

31
00:02:24.540 --> 00:02:31.880
I think the thing that excites me most is just the basic discovery of what exists. You know, what's out there.

32
00:02:31.880 --> 00:02:38.760
Waterworlds, carbon planets? It sounds like science fiction, but not really. Not anymore.

33
00:02:38.760 --> 00:02:44.760
Marc Kuchner: Why did life arise on Earth instead of somewhere else?

34
00:02:44.760 --> 00:02:51.780
I mean if there's another planet that could have life on it, why aren't we there?

35
00:02:51.780 --> 00:03:12.800
(music)