Where Do They Come From?
This is the first stage in the formation of a solar system with exoplanets
What is a dust cloud?
These exoplanets are named based on their large size and and close proximity to their host stars
What are hot Jupiters?
This method is responsible for finding the most exoplanets by number.
What is the transit method?
This method of identifying the composition of an object has only been done on 6 different objects
What is direct sampling?
Finding more exoplanets will likely lead to finding more of these special kinds of exoplanets
What are habitable exoplanets?
This stage in exoplanet formation will make a solar system look like a really big Saturn
What is the protoplanetary disc?
These exoplanets are named due to their terrestrial composition, but they're double the size of Earth
What are super-Earths?
Radial velocity and astrometry are both types of this method
What is the wobble method?
These are the only two moons which we have directly sampled
What are Luna and Titan?
The most prolific exoplanet hunter was this space mission run by the European Space Agency
What is the Kepler Mission?
These only exist for about 10,000 years before they drift apart. They're also where the heavy elements come from.
What is a planetary nebula?
This zone is named after a fairytale character who liked things not too hot and not too cold; liquid water is similarly picky.
What is the Goldilocks Zone? (Habitable Zone)
Aliens who were attempting to detect the prescence of planets in our Solar System would likely find the most success using this method.
What is direct imaging?
Astrophysicists owe their entire field of study to Cecelia Payne, who discovered this method of analyzing stars and created the field of astrophysics
What is spectroscopy?
Earth could be detected because it gives off a lot of these special kind of waves, which most planets and stars don't naturally produce a lot of
What are radio waves?
This is the event which creates all the elements between iron and uranium.
What is a supernova?
These objects in our Solar System gave astronomers the ability to see what our Solar System was like while planets were forming
What are meteorites, comets, and asteroids?
This method has been the least successful of all four methods to date
What is astrometry?
Spectroscopy can only be done on planets which are detected with these two methods
What are the transit method and direct imaging?
We are limited in our search for alien life because we've only seen life on Earth which is based on this element and this compound; perhaps life elsewhere is based on different things.
What are carbon and water?
This was most likely the first planet formed in our Solar System
What is Jupiter?
The core accretion model of planetary formation is the leading model with the most data supporting it and general acceptance among scientists, which makes it at this stage in the scientific method
What is a Theory?
This method relies on the same mechanics which are behind the rising and falling pitch of a train horn as it goes by
What is radial velocity?
This biosignature molecule is the hardest to detect in exoplanet atmospheres since it reacts with very few forms of light.
What is oxygen?
Finding Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars will be difficult because this detection method doesn't work well on them
What is all of them?