Exoplanet Statistics and Demographics Update

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob on July 25, 2014

Exoplanet statistics and demographics update for July 2014: In 2014, not only did the number of confirmed exoplanets discovered exceed 1000, a batch of over 700 planets observed by Kepler was added to the list of confirmed exoplanets. It is time once again to see how the basic numbers pertaining to exoplanet observations have changed. […]

Kepler Two-Wheel White Papers

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob on October 13, 2013

Many apologies for the long gap in articles, due to a change in my job situation.On the exoplanet front there have been some important developments with the Kepler mission. But first of all, it’s worth mentioning that at the time of writing, the number of confirmed planets outside of our solar system is just shy […]

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A Snapshot of a Vigorously Active Field of Inquiry

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob June 9, 2013

As the impairment of the Kepler mission is mourned, the latest number of Kepler planet candidates from existing data increases to 3,216, as reported on the

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An Important Clue for Earth-sized Planets- A Plateau in the Exoplanet Size Distribution

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob April 16, 2013

Robust, observational, empirical results are highly desirable and sought-after because they have the potential to make or break theoretical scenarios and thereby provide a significant step forward in understanding. However, such diagnostics are relative rare in exoplanet science, especially with respect to population and demographic properties. One of the holy grails is to understand the […]

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The Quest for Biosignatures of Extraterrestrial Life – A Holy Grail of Exoplanet Research

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob March 3, 2013

Exoplanet research papers currently cover a wide variety of topics. A large proportion of papers present detailed analysis of the data, or a feature of the data, for a single system, either from ground-based or space-based observations. Others present studies of subsamples consisting of groups of systems, along with statistical or collective results and deductions. […]

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Exoplanets in 2013 and an Overview of 2012

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob January 11, 2013

If we look back at 2012 and compare the number of new confirmed planets found, with the corresponding numbers in previous years, it turns out that a little surprisingly, 2011 was still more dramatic than 2012. In 2012, according to the Extrasolar Planet Encyclopedia, a total of 138 confirmed planets were added, compared to 189 […]

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Controversy and Developments for the Gliese 581 System- Habitable or Non-Existent Planets?

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob November 29, 2012

The Gliese 581 (or GJ 581) system, and the number of planets it hosts, has gained considerable fame and notoriety. The system is centered around a dwarf star about a third of the mass of the Sun, located at about 20.3 light years from us. Fierce debate has prevailed in the literature, regarding the number […]

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A Batch of More Than 60 New Planets and Development of the Mass-Period Diagram

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob October 7, 2012

Apologies for the long delay since the last post – funding deadlines and unforseen circumstances this month have consumed a lot of time. Still, I endeavor to bring you exclusive content that is not easily found elsewhere. (One of these days I’ll report on some of the keyword phrases in search engines that bring people […]

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Outliers at the Extremities of the Exoplanet Density Distribution

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob September 8, 2012

Understanding the outliers in any endeavor is imperative because any general explanation of something (a distribution, a correlation, etc.) must absolutely be able account for the outliers. The outliers can make or break a general interpretation, explanation, or theory. Outliers potentially are more interesting than the rest of the group because there may be new […]

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Ocean Planets, Land to Ocean Ratio, and a Self-Arrest Mechanism in Waterworlds

by Dr. Tahir Yaqoob August 15, 2012

An extremely interesting preprint of a paper appeared on arXiv in early August 2012 that comes to some fascinating theoretical conclusions about the habitability and time-evolution of waterworlds, or ocean planets. The paper is entitled Indication of insensitivity of planetary weathering behavior and habitable zone to surface land fraction, by Abbot, Cowan, and Cielsa. Waterworlds, […]

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