full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Sara Seager: The search for planets beyond our solar system

Unscramble the Blue Letters

So working on the models and thinking about bcmeriithosy, it's all well and good. But a really big challenge ahead of us is: how? How are we going to find these planets? There are actually many ways to find planets, several different ways. But the one that I'm most fosecud on is how can we open a gateway so that in the future, we can find hdurdnes of Earths. We have a real shot at finding snigs of life. And actually, I just finished leading a two-year project in this very special phsae of a concept we call the starshade. And the sathrsdae is a very specially shpaed screen and the goal is to fly that starshade so it blocks out the light of a star so that the telescope can see the ptlnaes directly. Here, you can see myself and two team members hoidlng up one small part of the starshade. It's shaped like a ganit flower, and this is one of the prototype petals. The concept is that a starshade and telescope could launch together, with the petals unfurling from the stowed position. The central tsrus would expand, with the petals snapping into place. Now, this has to be made very pesiecrly, literally, the petals to microns and they have to dpeoly to millimeters. And this whole structure would have to fly tens of thousands of kilometers away from the telescope. It's about tens of meters in diameter. And the goal is to block out the sriagthlt to incredible precision so that we'd be able to see the planets directly. And it has to be a very special shape, because of the physics of defraction. Now this is a real pcjoert that we worked on, literally, you would not believe how hard. Just so you believe it's not just in movie format, here's a real photograph of a second-generation starshade deployment test bed in the lab. And in this case, I just wteand you to know that that central truss has htagreie left over from large radio deployables in space.

Open Cloze

So working on the models and thinking about ____________, it's all well and good. But a really big challenge ahead of us is: how? How are we going to find these planets? There are actually many ways to find planets, several different ways. But the one that I'm most _______ on is how can we open a gateway so that in the future, we can find ________ of Earths. We have a real shot at finding _____ of life. And actually, I just finished leading a two-year project in this very special _____ of a concept we call the starshade. And the _________ is a very specially ______ screen and the goal is to fly that starshade so it blocks out the light of a star so that the telescope can see the _______ directly. Here, you can see myself and two team members _______ up one small part of the starshade. It's shaped like a _____ flower, and this is one of the prototype petals. The concept is that a starshade and telescope could launch together, with the petals unfurling from the stowed position. The central _____ would expand, with the petals snapping into place. Now, this has to be made very _________, literally, the petals to microns and they have to ______ to millimeters. And this whole structure would have to fly tens of thousands of kilometers away from the telescope. It's about tens of meters in diameter. And the goal is to block out the _________ to incredible precision so that we'd be able to see the planets directly. And it has to be a very special shape, because of the physics of defraction. Now this is a real _______ that we worked on, literally, you would not believe how hard. Just so you believe it's not just in movie format, here's a real photograph of a second-generation starshade deployment test bed in the lab. And in this case, I just ______ you to know that that central truss has ________ left over from large radio deployables in space.

Solution

  1. biochemistry
  2. project
  3. planets
  4. starlight
  5. hundreds
  6. heritage
  7. deploy
  8. phase
  9. truss
  10. shaped
  11. precisely
  12. wanted
  13. signs
  14. starshade
  15. giant
  16. holding
  17. focused

Original Text

So working on the models and thinking about biochemistry, it's all well and good. But a really big challenge ahead of us is: how? How are we going to find these planets? There are actually many ways to find planets, several different ways. But the one that I'm most focused on is how can we open a gateway so that in the future, we can find hundreds of Earths. We have a real shot at finding signs of life. And actually, I just finished leading a two-year project in this very special phase of a concept we call the starshade. And the starshade is a very specially shaped screen and the goal is to fly that starshade so it blocks out the light of a star so that the telescope can see the planets directly. Here, you can see myself and two team members holding up one small part of the starshade. It's shaped like a giant flower, and this is one of the prototype petals. The concept is that a starshade and telescope could launch together, with the petals unfurling from the stowed position. The central truss would expand, with the petals snapping into place. Now, this has to be made very precisely, literally, the petals to microns and they have to deploy to millimeters. And this whole structure would have to fly tens of thousands of kilometers away from the telescope. It's about tens of meters in diameter. And the goal is to block out the starlight to incredible precision so that we'd be able to see the planets directly. And it has to be a very special shape, because of the physics of defraction. Now this is a real project that we worked on, literally, you would not believe how hard. Just so you believe it's not just in movie format, here's a real photograph of a second-generation starshade deployment test bed in the lab. And in this case, I just wanted you to know that that central truss has heritage left over from large radio deployables in space.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
exoplanet atmospheres 5
small planets 3
crazy theory 3
planets orbiting 2
night sky 2
space telescope 2
favorite exoplanets 2
science fiction 2
greenhouse gases 2
study exoplanet 2
life produces 2
intelligent aliens 2
central truss 2
real photograph 2
complicated space 2
space telescopes 2
pale blue 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
study exoplanet atmospheres 2
complicated space telescopes 2

Important Words

  1. bed
  2. big
  3. biochemistry
  4. block
  5. blocks
  6. call
  7. case
  8. central
  9. challenge
  10. concept
  11. defraction
  12. deploy
  13. deployables
  14. deployment
  15. diameter
  16. earths
  17. expand
  18. find
  19. finding
  20. finished
  21. flower
  22. fly
  23. focused
  24. format
  25. future
  26. gateway
  27. giant
  28. goal
  29. good
  30. hard
  31. heritage
  32. holding
  33. hundreds
  34. incredible
  35. kilometers
  36. lab
  37. large
  38. launch
  39. leading
  40. left
  41. life
  42. light
  43. literally
  44. members
  45. meters
  46. microns
  47. millimeters
  48. models
  49. movie
  50. open
  51. part
  52. petals
  53. phase
  54. photograph
  55. physics
  56. place
  57. planets
  58. position
  59. precisely
  60. precision
  61. project
  62. prototype
  63. radio
  64. real
  65. screen
  66. shape
  67. shaped
  68. shot
  69. signs
  70. small
  71. snapping
  72. space
  73. special
  74. specially
  75. star
  76. starlight
  77. starshade
  78. stowed
  79. structure
  80. team
  81. telescope
  82. tens
  83. test
  84. thinking
  85. thousands
  86. truss
  87. unfurling
  88. wanted
  89. ways
  90. worked
  91. working