As Astronomers are looking for others planets and solar systems?

Question

They come across lots of stars and say "this is made up of that gas and this gas....ect...." these are all gases we as humans know about, but do they believe there could be GASES that we DO NOT KNOW OF?
thanks!(and I know i could of worded it better but my mind is not working correctly these days)

Answer 1

When we look at the spectrum of a star's light, we see the absorption lines that come from the fact that very precise frequencies of lights are absorbed by electrons of each gas in the star's "atmosphere".

Although there may still be some unknown component here and there, all of them are pretty well known in the visible light spectrum; there are still a few surprises away from visible light.

Helium was first "discovered" in the Sun's light spectrum. Hence its name (Helios was the Ancient Greek god ruling the Sun). Once its properties were guessed at (based on calculations from the spectral frequencies), it was then found on Earth -- we knew what to look for.

More recent surprises include the presence of some molecules (some simple oxides) in cooler stars.

By analyzing the spectrum, we can tell which gases are present, what the temperature is, whether there is a strong magnetic field...

When the spectra of distant galaxies were taken, we saw very strange spectral lines where such combinations had never been seen before. Was it a new gas? Then someone realised that the lines had the same distribution as the hudrogen lines (the most common), except that they were at the wrong frequencies. The Red Shift (Doppler shift caused by the relative speed of the galaxy) caused them to be seen at the longer frequencies.

So yes. Whenever we see new spectral lines, we get excited and we try to find out why. New gas? New property (e.g., magnetism)? Speed of source? Strong gravity? etc.

Answer 2

Well--the answer is pretty much no. Here's why:

All the material stars are made up of is extremely hot--so much so that it cannot form stable molecules. So all the gases we detect are elements (like hydrogen and helium). And--all the possible elements up to the"superheavy" or transuranic elements are already known. Any elements with atomic numbers beyond what we already know about don't occur in nature, except maybe in a supernova explosion. Even then, they'd exist for only seconds, at most, before they brok down.

A bit more detail--elements are defined by the number of protons in the nucleus--and you can't have "part" of a proton. So that number is always a whole number--the atomic number. Hydrogen has 1 proton, helium is 2, lithium 3, and so on. We know there aren't any missing elements because we've found ones that correspond to every number up past 104 (those are the superheavy oes that maybe could exist--but even the pressures in our sun, or most stars, cant produce them).

Now, if you look at planets orbiting those stars, which are cool enough for molecular (chemical) compounds to form, we may find a lot of unknown chemicals. But--our telescopes are just getting to the point of beig able to detect planets in the last 10 years or so. Its going to be awhile before we have instruments sensative enough to detect such unknown chemicals.

Answer 3

Astronomers are looking for other planets. It is called "extrasolar planet search" and you can google it easily.

As far as unknown elements are concerned, no, nobody is looking for those. We have basically found all elements that can exist already. This follows from quantum mechanics and what we know about nuclear physics. The chances that there is anything out there that we don't know are remote, at best.

There are, of course, things that we are looking for, but they do not make planets. "Dark matter" is, if you like, a substance that has not been found on earth, yet, and still, most of the universe seems to be made up of it. What it is, we don't know, yet, but we are all but certain that it is out there. If it is, it is all over the earth, too, it is just awfully hard to detect.

Answer 4

Eris, the largest dwarf planet known, was discovered in an ongoing survey at Palomar Observatory's Samuel Oschin telescope by astronomers Mike Brown (Caltech), Chad Trujillo (Gemini Observatory), and David Rabinowitz (Yale University). We officially suggested the name on 6 September 2006, and it was accepted and announced on 13 September 2006.

Answer 5

It's simple. The planets and stars that would matter to us have all reached the age of light speed and are gone only to leave us with the primitive and the mildly enlightened

But seriously .

Answer 6

Well, while anything is possible, generally, what's in one corner of the universe is in *every* part of the universe. We know Hydrogen exists everywhere. We know water is prevalent throughout at least the milkyway.

Pretty much, what we know is true here, will be the same everywhere else.

Answer 7

Extraterestrials have come to Earth and there are reports of UFO sightings, so there has to be other Earth like planets in other solar systems in which they can inhabit.

Answer 8

I think there will have to be, we are as a mere speck of sand on a beach.

Answer 9

yes