Exam 5: Exoplanets and the Formation of Planetary Systems

An astronomer is trying to detect an exoplanet via the phase cycle brightness method. Which of these changes to a particular planet will make it easier to detect, if everything else about the planet is unchanged?

After studying an exoplanet system carefully, astronomers determine that the intervals between the transits of a given exoplanet vary in a complex fashion. This most likely indicates that the system

Approximately how many planets are believed to exist around each star in our Galaxy, on average?

How do the exoplanets discovered through pulsar timing differ from nearly all the other exoplanets discovered to date?

Planets have been discovered in each of these situations EXCEPT

The majority of our body weight comes from heavy elements such as carbon and oxygen, which asserts the fact that

The majority of extrasolar planets have been found

The composition of matter in the universe can be summarized by which statement?

Which of these features have NOT been detected to date around exoplanets?

The MOST likely mechanism for the formation of a star and planetary system is that the

An astronomer is trying to detect an exoplanet via the radial velocity method. Which of these changes to a particular planet will make it easier to detect, if everything else about the planet is unchanged?

To date, all the exoplanets detected through the direct imaging method are

The MOST common elements in the universe are

At the present time, how many extrasolar planets have been confirmed?

Interstellar exoplanets, which do NOT orbit a star, are most likely

Which of these methods for detecting exoplanets is MOST analogous to the pulsar timing method?

Which method of detecting exoplanets has detected the most multiple exoplanet systems?

What is the Jeans instability?

To date, the star with the largest known number of exoplanets orbiting it has

Approximately how many Earthlike planets with orbits closer than Mercury's are believed to exist in our Galaxy?