Discovery of 51 Pegasi b 2026-10-18
Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz began observing 51 Pegasi in September 1994 and revisited its repeating Doppler spectroscopy signal in 1995. Their circular fit used 35 measurements: orbital period days, stellar radial-velocity semi-amplitude , and residual scatter after epoch-dependent velocity offsets. Apparently stable comparison stars checked the instrumental zero point. Low chromospheric stellar activity and an inferred roughly 30-day stellar rotation period argued against starspots; light curves and the spectral line bisector tested stellar pulsation. These checks favoured orbital motion but had finite sensitivity. The reported Jupiter masses was not a true mass. Stronger upper bounds used stellar-spin information and assumed spin–orbit alignment, limiting a nearly face-on binary star interpretation conditionally.[ref]
A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Mayor and Queloz (1995), pp. 356–358, figures 2–4, table 1, and alternative interpretations; scan: wwelsh.sdsu.edu/CLASSES/ASTR510/PAPERS/Mayor-Queloz_51Peg.pdf
The hot Jupiter matters both for planetary migration and for how exoplanets are found. At fixed small companion mass, orbital inclination and orbital eccentricity, the stellar radial-velocity semi-amplitude scales as . Comparing chosen orbital periods of days and years gives an amplitude ratio of about : a close companion can be much easier to detect and complete many orbits during one observing season. Finding a giant planet close to its star also asks how its present orbit relates to where it formed. Doppler spectroscopy supplies a dynamical constraint; it does not by itself establish a formation pathway or measure the exoplanet's radius.
Doppler spectroscopy Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Doppler spectroscopy detects an exoplanet through the host star's changing Doppler shift. Both bodies orbit their shared astronomical barycenter: the star undergoes stellar reflex motion even when the exoplanet itself is unseen. Its velocity along the line of sight shifts its spectral lines; at speeds small compared with the speed of light, , with positive for recession. Repeated measurements can fit a Kepler orbit, rather than merely detect one shifted spectrum. Starspots and other changes in stellar spectral lines must be distinguished from actual orbital motion.
For one companion in an isolated two-body problem, the stellar radial-velocity semi-amplitude isHere is the gravitational constant, the orbital period, the orbital eccentricity, and the star and exoplanet masses. The orbital inclination is measured relative to the sky plane: is face-on and is an edge-on orbit. The exact binary mass function measured from the fitted orbit isWith known and , this is usually reported as . Taking gives the minimum companion mass; a smaller orbital inclination allows a larger mass. A detected exoplanet transit constrains close to for a compact planet orbiting well outside the star's surface, substantially resolving this ambiguity. Combining Doppler spectroscopy and exoplanet transit photometry then supplies a mass and radius for exoplanet interior studies.
For a computed circular example, let and choose a relative orbital speed : this is the speed of the planet relative to the star, not its speed about the astronomical barycenter. Conservation of momentum givesThe barycentric velocities point in opposite directions, so their speeds add to . Here and : at , at , and zero at . The star still orbits in the face-on case, but its orbital velocity has no line-of-sight component. The plotted circular signal is for a chosen phase origin and constant system velocity .
Drum-frequency dimensional scaling 2026-10-20
A geometrically similar taut membrane of radius , uniform isotropic tension per unit length and areal mass density has normal mode frequencies . Matching mass, length and time dimensions fixes these exponents; the dimensionless constant depends on the normal mode and boundary shape. The result does not apply unchanged when bending stiffness adds an independent material parameter.
Earth Fact Sheet by National Aeronautics and Space Administration Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-24
The bulk-parameters table gives the terrestrial standard gravitational parameter and volumetric mean radius . The orbital-parameters table distinguishes the sidereal day, , from the -hour solar day. Use the problem's own radius when it supplies one.
Edge-hinged cube with a central spherical cavity Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-24
For a uniform cube of mass and side hinged along an edge, the centre is from the hinge and . Removing a concentric sphere of radius removes mass and hinge inertia , without shifting the centre. Combining the reduced weight and reduced inertia in proves the displayed frequency ratio. Updating only the inertia would miss the change of gravitational restoring torque.
Effective radius 2026-10-24
The projected radius enclosing half an object's total luminosity in a specified photometric passband. For circular apertures, the mean linear surface brightness inside it is . Elliptical apertures require an axis-ratio factor or a circularized radius; that convention must be stated when comparing calibrations.
For an infinite insulating cylinder of radius and uniform fixed charge density , Gauss's law gives interior electric field and exterior electric field , where is transverse displacement from its axis. The electric field is continuous at when there is no separate surface charge density. The interior linear dependence makes displaced-cylinder superposition particularly simple.
Electrostatic corner-field exponent 2026-10-20
If the lowest allowed angular harmonic has a nonzero coefficient, differentiating its potential gives the displayed field scale. The field vanishes at a right-angle recess, stays finite at a smooth face, and diverges at a protruding conducting corner whose exterior vacuum angle exceeds . A rounded tip cuts off the ideal power law at its radius scale. If the first coefficient vanishes, the first nonzero higher harmonic determines the exponent instead.
Electrostatic energy increase on equal-drop coalescence Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-24
Two isolated conducting drops of radius and equal charge merge at fixed total charge and volume. The new radius is , so its capacitance grows by only while total charge doubles. Relative to the sum of the initially separated self energies, the final electric field energy grows by . Decreased surface energy and/or applied mechanical work can supply that increase. Sufficiently large like charges need not coalesce spontaneously; energy conservation is not a guarantee of merging. A maintained external voltage would define a different problem.
Elementary charge Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
The elementary charge is the positive magnitude of the electron's electric charge, not the signed electric charge of the electron itself:Since the 2019 revision of the SI, this numerical value defines the ampere together with the definition of the second; . Thus today's numerical exactness is a choice of units, whereas measured electric charges still have experimental uncertainty. An oil drop experiment can test charge quantization and the apparatus calibration; it does not supply a new uncertain defining value of in today's SI. [ref]
https://www.bipm.org/documents/20126/41483022/SI-Brochure-9-EN.pdf. BIPM, The International System of Units, ninth edition, sections 2.2 and 2.3.1, the ampere
.For ordinary isolated chemical atoms, ions and charged objects whose net electric charge is counted through protons and electrons, charge quantization gives with signed integer . A neutral chemical atom that loses two electrons becomes an ion of electric charge . A toy object with excess electrons has . Conversely, the scale explains why laboratory electric charge often looks continuous: billions of microscopic increments fit into a small macroscopic amount. Averaged charge density is a continuum description, not a claim that each particle has an arbitrarily divisible electric charge.
The ordinary-matter qualifier matters. In the Standard Model, quarks have electric charges or , and antiquarks have the opposite signs. Confinement means these are constituents of hadrons, not isolated fractionally charged particles collected by an oil drop experiment. The usual valence quark sums give for a proton and for a neutron. Thus elementary charge should not be defined as the smallest nonzero electric charge of every constituent in particle theory. [ref]
https://pdg.lbl.gov/2022/reviews/rpp2022-rev-quark-model.pdf. Amsler, DeGrand and Krusche, Particle Data Group, Quark Model, sections 15.1–15.2 and table 15.1
.The beautiful experimental idea behind the oil drop experiment is to determine a microscopic electric charge by watching a visible carrier move. In his 1913 paper, Millikan timed the descent and electrically driven ascent of individual oil drops, repeatedly changing a drop's electric charge through capture of air ions. His apparatus used parallel plates separated by , a roughly source, and an optical scale to measure travel distances. He reported multiple relationships among a given drop's inferred electric charges. He also found that uncorrected Stokes's law gave a size-dependent inferred elementary unit, and introduced a pressure-dependent slip correction. These were measured relationships with calibration and model uncertainties, not exact readings of today's defined . [ref]
https://grundpraktikum.physik.uni-saarland.de/gpalt/Anleitungen/Ergaenzungen/Versuche/Millikan/Millikan%20-%20On%20the%20Elementary%20Electrical%20Charge%20and%20the%20Avogadro%20Constant.pdf. R. A. Millikan, On the Elementary Electrical Charge and the Avogadro Constant, Physical Review 2 (1913), 109–143, especially pp. 109–112 and 115–116
.A modern instructional implementation sprays low-volatility oil of known density through a plate aperture, illuminates the drops, and follows one through a calibrated optical scale. Measure the plate spacing , electric potential difference , air temperature and pressure. Time a fixed distance with the electric field off to get a terminal falling speed . Then choose the field polarity to drive the same drop upward and measure . Repeat timings at a fixed electric charge, and compare before and after an ion-capture event. The same drop is especially useful because its radius and mass need not be inferred anew for each charge state. [ref]
https://cdn.pasco.com/product_document/Millikan-Oil-Drop-Manual-AP-8210B.pdf. PASCO, Millikan Oil Drop Apparatus AP-8210B manual, introduction, theory and experimental procedure
.Here is the leading continuum model, retaining buoyancy. Assume a drop shaped as a sphere of radius , oil and air densities and , air dynamic viscosity , and gravitational acceleration . Define the downward effective weight and positive linear drag coefficient byAt terminal velocity, the net force vanishes. Falling with no electric field, the upward drag force balances weight minus buoyancy. Rising with the electric force upward, the drag force reverses and joins the downward effective weight:Consequently the uncorrected estimates areThe observed direction of response, with known field polarity, supplies the sign of . A suspended drop gives the alternative balance , but it still requires a determination of : balancing a drop alone does not determine its electric charge.
For an explicitly invented continuum example, stipulate , , , , , and a downward . The balances predict , and . Substituting those speeds recovers within rounding. This checks the algebra; it is not a precision prediction for real micrometre drops, which need a slip correction.
The inference has two distinct parts. Compare inferred electric charges or charge changes with a common unit, seeking within uncertainty, rather than demanding exact ratios of rounded measurements. Then establish the absolute scale through electric field, density, dynamic viscosity and distance/time calibration. If the observed steps are all even multiples, their common spacing alone cannot exclude an unobserved smaller unit. Air motion, evaporation and mistimed crossings can alter inferred electric charge without an ion-capture event. Small Reynolds number supports Stokes's law, but does not by itself justify its no-slip continuum coefficient: a significant ratio of air mean free path to drop radius requires a slip correction. Millikan's comparison of different drop sizes and pressures addressed that systematic limitation; the modern PASCO manual also includes the correction. Agreement supports charge quantization for the observed carriers within experimental resolution, rather than proving a universal statement about every possible particle.
Multiplying by the Avogadro constant gives the Faraday constant, , the electric charge per mole of singly charged carriers. This connects counting individual electric charges with bulk electrochemistry. [ref]
https://physics.nist.gov/cuu/pdf/wall_2022.pdf. NIST, CODATA 2022 defining constants and Faraday constant
. Energy-preserving change of rolling radius 2026-10-20
A rigid body rolling with effective radius has kinetic energy . If a transition changes the rolling constraint while preserving this total energy, the translational speed changes according to the title formula. Maintaining the same speed would generally require energy loss or gain. The energy-preserving condition is an assumption about the transition, not a generic property of sudden impacts.
Exact half-period zone radii 2026-10-20
For a plane wave incident on a flat zone plate, the path difference from radius to axial focal distance is . Setting it equal to gives the title relation. The paraxial limit is , and the fine outer-zone width is approximately . Alternately removing half-period annuli makes the remaining contributions reinforce at the principal focus. Choosing the number of zones sets the aperture and fabrication scale, not the principal focal distance independently of these radii.
Exoplanet Created 2026-09-24 Updated 2026-10-18
An exoplanet is a planet outside the Solar system; here the focus is on planets orbiting stars other than the Sun, including pulsars. Most exoplanets are detected indirectly: a star's changing Doppler shift reveals its motion, or a small dip in its light curve reveals an exoplanet transit. The striking idea is that an unresolved point of light can tell us about an otherwise unseen world's mass, radius, and orbit.
The measurements answer different questions. Exoplanet transit photometry primarily gives a radius ratio, while Doppler spectroscopy constrains mass together with orbital inclination. Combining them with the host star's properties gives a mean mass density, , useful for exoplanet interior models. Even this combination does not uniquely determine composition: see exoplanet interior-composition degeneracy. Transit spectroscopy and an exoplanet secondary eclipse then probe an exoplanet atmosphere.
The discovery history has two distinct milestones. In 1992 Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail reported two planet-mass companions to the pulsar PSR B1257+12 from periodic changes in pulse arrival times; their paper also suggested an additional companion. These were the first confirmed exoplanet discoveries, around a neutron star. [ref]
https://www.nature.com/articles/355145a0. Wolszczan and Frail (1992)
. Wolszczan's contemporary conference account, archived by NASA, likewise distinguishes the two reported companions from a possible third. [ref]https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19920021993. Wolszczan (1992), NASA archive
.In 1995 Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz discovered 51 Pegasi b through Doppler spectroscopy, the landmark first confirmed exoplanet around a Sun-like star. This was a hot Jupiter, not the first exoplanet of every kind: the earlier pulsar discoveries belong to a different host category. [ref]
A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star by Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz. Mayor and Queloz (1995)
. NASA's contemporary account describes the confirmation and the approximately four-day orbital period. [ref]https://science.nasa.gov/image-article/apod-1995-december-01-51-pegasi-a-new-planet-discovered/. NASA account (December 1995)
. Exoplanet transit depth Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
The fractional decrease in observed radiative flux during an exoplanet transit, relative to the out-of-transit baseline. For a uniform star, a dark planet, full disc overlap, and no transit dilution, the exoplanet transit depth is . For a nonuniform star it depends on the blocked specific intensity as well as the radius ratio.
Exoplanet transit photometry Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-14
Exoplanet transit photometry measures the decrease in a star's observed radiative flux during an exoplanet transit. Define as the unobscured star's observed radiative flux and as the value at time . For a dark, opaque exoplanet crossing a uniformly bright circular stellar disc, a fully superimposed planetary disc blocks exactly the fractionHere and are the planet and star radii. This exoplanet transit depth determines a radius ratio, ; an absolute planet radius requires an independently estimated stellar radius. For , : a one-percent dip, with . Halving the radius ratio to reduces the exoplanet transit depth to , a quarter as much.
For the central exoplanet transit illustrated below, the transit impact parameter is . Write and let be the projected centre-to-centre separation in units of . The light curve is , where is the overlap area of circles of radii and . There is no overlap when ; the planetary disc is fully inside when , giving . Between those limits, the overlap area grows or shrinks continuously. Thus even a uniform star has curved ingress and egress, with a flat bottom only during full overlap. The illustration uses approximately constant transverse velocity over the short crossing, so with mid-transit at . Analytic models also handle limb darkening. [ref]
https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0210099. Mandel and Agol (2002)
.The simple exoplanet transit depth formula assumes constant stellar brightness, no limb darkening or starspots, negligible light from the exoplanet, and no transit dilution by other light. It describes full overlap in a non-grazing exoplanet transit, requiring for a full-overlap interval. A grazing exoplanet transit never hides the whole planetary disc against the star, and limb darkening weights different blocked areas differently. Repeating dips are valuable evidence, but eclipsing binary stars and starspots can imitate parts of the signal, so confirmation and joint modelling matter.
Far-field approximation for a current loop 2026-10-14
Far outside a localized steady source of size , at distance , its multipole expansion starts with the magnetic dipole moment if that moment is nonzero. In vacuum, using SI units,where is the vacuum permeability, , and the magnetic field is the curl of the magnetic vector potential. The magnetic dipole field falls as , and the magnetic vector potential as . The localized steady-current moment identities remove the putative term in the magnetic vector potential. No magnetic monopole is needed. If different current loops cancel the total magnetic dipole moment, a higher term of the multipole expansion supplies the leading distant magnetic field. [ref].
The approximation is not valid at the center of a finite current loop. For a circular current loop of radius and electric current , the exact on-axis magnetic field of a circular current loop and the distant approximation areTheir ratio is : at , the approximate magnetic field exceeds the exact magnetic field by about relative to the exact value. Near the source, retain its geometry rather than replacing it with a point source specified only by its magnetic dipole moment.
Fluorite packing fraction 2026-10-20
Focal ratio Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-18
The focal ratio, or f-number, of a converging optical instrument focused at infinity is the dimensionless quantitywhere is effective focal length and is the on-axis entrance pupil diameter. The notation f/4 means , not in a particular unit. A focal length with gives f/4. Closing the aperture stop until gives f/8 while retaining the same focal length. The mechanical opening need not equal . [ref]
https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/imaging/lens-iris-aperture-setting/. Gregory Hollows and Nicholas James, Edmund Optics, System Throughput, f-number, and Numerical Aperture
.For a thin lens in air with a circular aperture stop at the thin lens, the converging bundle from a distant on-axis point has half-angle satisfyingThe last step uses the small-angle approximation. For a compound optical lens, the cone is set by the image-side optical pupil and its distance from the receiving plane; the simple triangle is not an exact high-angle rule. At finite object distance a thin lens instead gives , by its imaging equation and transverse magnification, so its working cone corresponds to . Nominal focal ratio therefore does not alone specify close-range image irradiance. [ref]
https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/imaging/lens-iris-aperture-setting/. Hollows and James, working f-number and image-space cone
.Two useful scalings follow under stated conditions. For a fixed uniform incident beam and unchanged transmission, collected radiant flux scales as . For an extended source with fixed radiance, the central image irradiance scales approximately as in the paraxial approximation: the solid angle of the cone scales as . For an ideal uniformly illuminated unobscured circular entrance pupil, the first dark ring of the point spread function has angular radius and focal plane radiusHere is wavelength. These are first-zero radii, not diameters or a universal rule for resolving arbitrary objects. A proof outline evaluates the circular aperture's Fraunhofer diffraction using its Fourier transform, then uses the first zero of the resulting Bessel function. [ref]
Two-Dimensional Fourier Optics. Richard Fitzpatrick, University of Texas at Austin, Two-Dimensional Fourier Optics, circular-aperture first minimum
.At , the example's f/4 and f/8 first-ring radii are and . Closing the aperture stop halves , quarters collected radiant flux and doubles this diffraction radius. It can also reduce optical aberrations by excluding outer light rays; actual sharpness reflects both effects. This explains why a smaller aperture need not produce a sharper image. [ref]
https://www.edmundoptics.com/knowledge-center/application-notes/imaging/limitations-on-resolution-and-contrast-the-airy-disk/. Gregory Hollows and Nicholas James, Edmund Optics, The Airy Disk and Diffraction Limit
.Aperture and focal ratio: a common optical focus, reduced collection and increased diffraction radius
. Original analytical illustration. Left: equal-scale thin lens geometry with and or . Right: collected radiant flux relative to f/4 is , and first-ring radius relative to f/4 is . The wavelength is ; the entrance pupil is circular, uniformly illuminated and unobscured. These are calculated quantities, not measurements. Details.A proposed optical bench check puts a fixed collimator before a converging thin lens and a photodetector large enough to collect the entire image behind it. Compare two centred aperture stops of known diameters while fixing source output, detector gain and integration time. The integrated signal tests the collection law; a spatially resolved optical camera at the focal plane can separately measure the point spread function. Repeat a dark reading and the first aperture stop, and check that neither the incoming beam nor detector clips either bundle. A resolved pinhole source, imperfect collimation, optical aberrations and detector pixel size can dominate the apparent spot width; a single peak reading does not measure total collected radiant flux.
Fourier model of a Lyot coronagraph Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-20
Consider an ideal coherent monochromatic wave from an unresolved source on the optical axis, a uniform circular entrance pupil of diameter , and ideal relay optics without wavefront errors. In the scalar Fraunhofer diffraction approximation, a Fourier transform carries the pupil's complex amplitude into the image plane. Choose dimensionless pupil coordinates in units of and angular coordinates , where is the wavelength. DefineThe coronagraphic focal plane mask has transmission , with inside the occulting disk and outside. Thus the field immediately after the mask is . Outside the disk , so the local wave intensity is still : hiding the core has left those rings intact. Reimaging an unlimited pupil giveswhere is convolution, is the Lyot stop transmission, and the proportionality constant in the irradiance is omitted. Coordinate reversals from physical relay optics are absorbed into the coordinate choice. These equations use wave amplitudes throughout propagation; applying a Fourier transform to wave intensity would give a different and incorrect model. This is the pupil/image calculation described by Sivaramakrishnan et al.; the circular disk and numerical choices below are our illustrative specialization. [ref]
https://ao.jpl.nasa.gov/Publications/Technical/2001ApJ.sivaramakrishnan.AO.pdf. Sivaramakrishnan et al., 2001, §2.1, equations 2–6
.The subtraction explains the beauty of the arrangement: in much of the interior, the original pupil field and the convolution term nearly cancel. Near a boundary, that cancellation is incomplete. The Lyot stop can therefore block a region containing disproportionately much unwanted light. A hard-edged coronagraphic focal plane mask has a transform with extended tails, so the interior need not be perfectly dark. With an unlimited relay, gives exactly: no further ring suppression occurs. A stop covering the full original optical pupil instead uses and already clips field outside the optical pupil; an undersized Lyot stop clips more of the remaining rim.
The toy uses a coronagraphic focal plane mask of angular radius and a Lyot stop of diameter . The discrete Fourier transform grid has samples, with 128 across and angular sampling ; it approximates the continuous equations on a finite periodic domain. The plot averages wave intensity in annuli of width . Over the annulus , the mean wave intensity divided by the direct stellar peak is approximately without a coronagraph, the same with only the focal mask and an unlimited relay, with the mask and full pupil, and with the mask and Lyot stop. Thus the undersized opening reduces this particular annular mean about 27-fold relative to the full-pupil comparison. It does not suppress every direction by that factor, and these values do not predict a real instrument's detection limit.
The ideal toy excludes a central obstruction, support vanes, scattering of light, wavefront errors, atmospheric effects, a spread of wavelengths, pointing drift and detector noise. It also contains only the star: no simulated planet or solar corona. For a far off-axis source whose image misses the coronagraphic focal plane mask, the continuous geometric coronagraph throughput of the opening tends to relative to the full disk. Rejecting stellar light therefore costs some desired light as well. Enlarging the coronagraphic focal plane mask narrows the characteristic scale of its pupil-plane transform by the scaling property of the Fourier transform, but also hides a larger neighborhood of the source.
Gap field of a tapered electromagnet Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-10-20
A uniform-radius magnetic arc of length and radius , two linear tapers of length to radius , and an unfringed vacuum gap of length have the displayed gap field. Here and . Tapering concentrates flux, but at fixed winding current the gap-dominated limit is regardless of pole area. Saturation and leakage prevent unrestricted field enhancement.




