Planets Around Our Neighbor Stars

Students learn how astronomers detect planets around other stars and tour nearby systems with known planets, candidate planets and planet-forming disks, practicing how to tell a confirmed finding from a possibility.

Grades 5-8About 15 minutes of narrated flight, plus discussion stops8 stops

The full guide, with the 40-minute plan, discussion key points, exit ticket, activities, transcript and PDF, comes with a teacher license. Already licensed? Use Open the full guide.

What students will see and do

Students fly from the Sun to Proxima Centauri, its planet Proxima b, Barnard's Star, Epsilon Eridani (Ran), Tau Ceti, Fomalhaut and TRAPPIST-1. Aetherion pauses for discussion at Proxima b (what to learn before deciding if a planet could support life), Fomalhaut (why changing your mind is a strength in science) and TRAPPIST-1 (which of seven planets to study first).

Learning objectives

• Describe two methods astronomers use to detect planets around other stars: the star wobble method and the transit method.
• Identify nearby stars with known planets, candidate planets or dusty disks, including Proxima Centauri, Tau Ceti, Fomalhaut and TRAPPIST-1.
• Explain what the habitable zone is and why being in it does not guarantee a planet has liquid water.
• Compare confirmed discoveries with candidates, using Tau Ceti's possible planets and Fomalhaut b as examples of how scientific claims are tested.

NGSS connections

Stops on this journey

1. How to Find a Hidden World
2. The Nearest Star
3. The Closest Known Planet (discussion stop)
4. Barnard's Star and Its Small Worlds
5. Ran and Aegir
6. Tau Ceti and Possible Planets
7. The Dusty Ring of Fomalhaut (discussion stop)
8. Seven Earth-Size Worlds (discussion stop)

Vocabulary

• exoplanet
• red dwarf
• wobble method
• transit
• habitable zone
• atmosphere
• candidate
• debris disk