Home
Contact


Home
Contact


Exoplanet overview
Highlights

The people behind the science

Library

Mediatheque

Ask an Astronomer
Events

Heike Rauer is the coordinator of the SPP 1992.

She heads the DLR Institute of Planetary Research and coordinates the exoplanet mission PLATO.

Since 2017, Professor Heike Rauer has headed the Berlin Institute of Planetary Research of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) with more than one hundred employees.

View other posts

Spectroscopy

by | May 8, 2024 | All,Detection methods,Exoplanet Overview | 0 Comments

The Spectrum of light and what it tells us One fundamental and essential tool in the study of exoplanets is the study of light spectra. It is useful to have an...

Exoplanet systems

by | Feb 12, 2024 | All,Exoplanet Overview,Multiple planet systems | 0 Comments

Credit: nasa.govDefinition: The planets of our Solar System are ordered a certain way: closest to the sun are the smaller, terrestrial planets Mercury, Venus, Earth and...

Astrometry

by | Mar 10, 2023 | All,Astrometry,Detection methods | 0 Comments

How it works: Like the radial velocity method, this technique makes use of the fact that star and planet both orbit a shared center of mass. For systems that we look at...

Direct Imaging

by | Mar 10, 2023 | All,Detection methods,Direct Imaging | 0 Comments

Without a lot of prior knowledge, upon hearing "discovering planets around other stars" most people would probably think something like this: Take a powerful telescope,...

Gravitational lensing

by | Mar 10, 2023 | All,Detection methods,Gravitational lensing | 0 Comments

How it works: According to Einstein’s general theory of relativity, time and space are merged into one quantity called spacetime. Under this theory, massive objects...

Transit method

by | Mar 10, 2023 | All,Detection methods,Transit method | 0 Comments

Imaging an exoplanet directly is a difficult process that is only doable in a select few cases. Thus, we need indirect methods of detecting and studying these elusive...

Radial velocity method

by | Mar 10, 2023 | All,Detection methods,Radial velocity | 0 Comments

Because the direct imaging of planets around other stars is only feasible in select cases, the question arises: How, then, can we detect and study planets around other...

Neptune-sized planets

by | Mar 9, 2023 | All,Exoplanet Overview,Exoplanet types,Neptune-sized | 0 Comments

On the grand size scale between massive gas giants and smaller super-Earths, we find a class of medium-sized planets: Worlds with masses roughly between ten and 60...

Super-Earths

by | Mar 9, 2023 | All,Exoplanet Overview,Exoplanet types,Super-Earth | 0 Comments

Looking at all the planets of the Solar System arranged next to each other to scale, you can clearly see three categories: There’s the small rocky planets, with Earth...