Learning Platform

In this activity the students will explore using real and/or simulated data how to detect an exoplanet (a planet around another star) with the transit method. The basic idea of this method is to detect the small decrease of the brightness of a star when a planet passes in front of it. A code will be developed by the project to read the data from an excel file and process it in order to identify the planet (alternatively publicly available code e.g. from https://github.com/petigura/terra will be used). A presentation on exoplanets and methods of detecting them will proceed the activity.

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The teacher will explain the exercise in 20’ and ask students to form in groups of 3 students. The objective of the exercise and the instructions are given within 10’ and then the team has 40’ to carry out the exercise and present the outcome to the rest of the students in 5’.