IB Extended Essay in Astrophysics

[Victoria Petrov]

Hi everyone!
I am currently in desperate need of help in choosing an appropriate topic for an extended essay in HL physics.
(If you didn't know, an extended essay is a 4000 research paper where you analyze data, do experiments etc... for a particular topic of your choice)

I am really interested in exoplanets, more precisely the transits of exoplanets. At first I was just going to simulate the transit of an exoplanet and then use photometry and radial velocity to calculate its properties (simulation example attached below!) but then my supervisor told me my extended essay needs to have some purpose to it. Now I'm stuck, and my only other option with more 'purpose' to it is photometric modeling of Saturn's rings (which I feel like is too difficult, considering this is a high school paper).
I'm in desperate need of help, and it would be great if anyone could comment some interesting topics related to photometry/exoplanets! (topics which could be experimented)

 

[phinds]

I don't know if it's even possible but rather than a simulation, could you get hold of some real data from NASA of an actual transit and do your own analysis? Might be more work than you want to take on but seems to me it would be cool. Of course you'd be using someone else's experiment so that might rule it out right away.

 

[Steelwolf]

Your original idea is not bad, the tracking of a transit, but if you were to tease out some extra information out of the transit, to get an orbital speed, planetary mass, perhaps even data on the atmosphere of the transiting planet, or getting some idea of the temperature of the planet.

Trying to find water in the atmosphere of a transiting planet would be a good thing to try.

Set up the basis for your paper with a simulation of what you would expect to see as far as spectrum from water vapor (possibly in different phases, vapor, liquid or ice) and then check with a set of data from NASA to see if That exoplanet happens to have the water vapor signature.

Water is one of the first things we would need to For Sure have were we to move to another planet, along with a breathable atmosphere, but looking at Enceladus and Europa, perhaps the atmosphere is not exactly needed, if there is an ice layer to hold it all in.

But there are a great many things that can be learned About a planet by it's transit, this is just one area.

 

[Victoria Petrov]

I don't know if it's even possible but rather than a simulation, could you get hold of some real data from NASA of an actual transit and do your own analysis? Might be more work than you want to take on but seems to me it would be cool. Of course you'd be using someone else's experiment so that might rule it out right away.

That's a great idea! Although my diploma does not recommend data analysis papers, perhaps I could use the data from one of NASA's transit discoveries and simulate that. Thank you so much for your help :)

 

[Victoria Petrov]

Your original idea is not bad, the tracking of a transit, but if you were to tease out some extra information out of the transit, to get an orbital speed, planetary mass, perhaps even data on the atmosphere of the transiting planet, or getting some idea of the temperature of the planet.

Trying to find water in the atmosphere of a transiting planet would be a good thing to try.

Set up the basis for your paper with a simulation of what you would expect to see as far as spectrum from water vapor (possibly in different phases, vapor, liquid or ice) and then check with a set of data from NASA to see if That exoplanet happens to have the water vapor signature.

Water is one of the first things we would need to For Sure have were we to move to another planet, along with a breathable atmosphere, but looking at Enceladus and Europa, perhaps the atmosphere is not exactly needed, if there is an ice layer to hold it all in.

But there are a great many things that can be learned About a planet by it's transit, this is just one area.

THATS AMAZING TYSM! The diploma highly recommends doing research papers where in the end you help the society, so considering trying to find water in an atmosphere through photometry and radial velocity of a transiting planet would be a great topic. If I can combine this with what phinds said I could create the perfect experiment
Thank you so much!