Block 6: Reading Exoplanet Data Cards: Choosing Your Planet
From last block: name one thing a transit observation can tell us and one thing it can't.
Task: Pair-share, 60 seconds.
Answer in your Field Notebook, dated.
I can extract key habitability data from a card, justify why I chose this exoplanet, and identify two questions I'll need to answer about my chosen planet in Blocks 7–8.
I can use math and models to predict how planets and other objects orbit.
"Use mathematical or computational representations to predict the motion of orbiting objects in the solar system."
Where this runs:
- U1 B5: Exoplanet Detection: Transits and What They Tell Us
- U1 B6: Reading Exoplanet Data Cards: Choosing Your Planet ← you are here
Assessed:
Goldilocks Report: transit/orbit reasoning in your exoplanet analysis (T/T strand, Component 4 locks U1 Block 9)
On track looks like:
You can read a light curve: dip spacing → orbital period, and you know what that math can and can't tell you.
Reading: Watching for Shadows · Light-Curve Decode handout (in Google Classroom)
I can check an AI's answer against real sources and decide: use it, fix it, or bin it.
In brief: "Evaluate whether an AI output should be accepted, revised, or rejected (paraphrased; full framework at ailiteracyframework.org)"
Where this runs:
- U0 B1: Welcome + How We Work
- U0 B2: OPVL Across Source Types
- U0 B3: AI as a Source + Documentation Protocol
- U0 B4: Source Dossier Launch + Choosing Your Topic
- U0 B5: Source Dossier Work Day 2: AI Source + Documentation
- U1 B1: Phenomenon Launch: What Makes a Planet Habitable?
- U1 B3: Mars as Calibration: What Does Earth Have That Mars Doesn't?
- U1 B5: Exoplanet Detection: Transits and What They Tell Us
- U1 B6: Reading Exoplanet Data Cards: Choosing Your Planet ← you are here
- U1 B7: Habitability Framework: Building the Comparison
- U2 B3: Rivers as Landscape Sculptors
- U2 B6: Field Photo / Map Analysis Work Day
- U2 B7: Reading the Landscape: Worked Example + OPVL
- U4 B5: IPCC AR6 Deep Dive + Chennai Climate Brief Assigned
- U4 B6: Climate Models: How They Work, How They're Wrong, How to Read Them
Assessed:
Every AI Documentation Template: the 'one thing the AI got wrong' field
On track looks like:
You catch specific errors ('it said 2024; the report says 2023'), and you've stopped writing 'AI can hallucinate.'
What today is about
Choice-lock day. Eight candidates. One verdict to defend.
You've been hearing about the eight candidate exoplanets since Block 4. Today you read all eight data cards and lock your choice for the Goldilocks Report. The work between now and Block 10 is built around the planet you pick today: your framework, your sources, your verdict, your defense.
Not all eight are equally useful for your framework workout. TRAPPIST-1 e has the richest dataset and the most JWST work, but JWST's recent atmospheric non-detections on its siblings have complicated the "most habitable" framing. K2-18 b is the fastest-moving science target on the list: its dimethyl sulfide detection in 2023 is genuinely contested. Gliese 581 d is the pedagogical plant: its very existence is disputed (the 2007 detection may be stellar activity artifact). Kepler-186 f and Kepler-452 b are media darlings with thin primary-source support, useful for OPVL practice but harder to defend a verdict on. Pick the planet that gives you the best framework workout, not the most famous name.
The Planet Hunter has been in your toolkit since Block 3: today it becomes your main advisor for choice-lock. It still refuses verdicts: the lock is your call.
Before you start the work
Keep these open. The candidate table below is the data you choose from, and these cards are how you read it. Notes go in your Class Notebook as a Power outline.
Taking notes? Power 1 seeds for today
| Candidate | Distance (ly) | What's interesting about it |
|---|---|---|
| TRAPPIST-1 e | ~40 | Earth-sized, in HZ. JWST has not detected atmospheres on its siblings; this complicates the "most habitable" framing. |
| Proxima Centauri b | 4.24 | Closest known exoplanet. M-dwarf flares are a major atmospheric retention concern. |
| K2-18 b | ~124 | Hubble + JWST detected atmospheric water vapor; possible hycean world. DMS detection (2023) is contested. |
| Kepler-186 f | ~580 | First Earth-sized planet confirmed in a HZ. Too far for direct atmospheric study; OPVL is essential. |
| Kepler-452 b | ~1,800 | "Earth's older cousin" in pop-sci. Larger than Earth (1.6 R⊕); possibly super-Earth or mini-Neptune. |
| LHS 1140 b | ~40 | Rocky, in HZ around a quiet M-dwarf. Excellent JWST target. Less media coverage = harder OPVL practice. |
| TOI 700 d | ~101 | TESS discovery. Earth-sized in HZ. Recent enough that scientific consensus is still forming. |
| Gliese 581 d | ~20 | Genuinely contested existence: 2014 re-analysis suggests stellar activity artifact. Excellent for Limitations practice. |
Today's work: choose one path
Three real paths, same destination: a locked exoplanet choice + a profile to defend.
Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:
A: Sep 18 | U1 B6 | Reading Exoplanet Data Cards: Choosing Your PlanetB: Sep 17 | U1 B6 | Reading Exoplanet Data Cards: Choosing Your Planet
What you're submitting today
Locked choice + profile. This is the artifact that drives every subsequent block in the unit.
Your one-page exoplanet profile (filled-in data card) PLUS locked-choice declaration: the planet you'll defend in the Goldilocks Report. Include two specific questions you'll answer in Blocks 7 and 8 about this planet.
Submit via Google Classroom (link posted in August)One question before you leave
Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.
Stake a position. We'll come back to your "biggest unknown" in Block 8.
Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.
Link posted in AugustSign in with your school account. Your teacher can see what you write here.