Exoplanet transits occur when a distant exoplanet passes between its star and Earth. How does the transit method work? A solar eclipse, for example, is a transit, occuring as the moon passes between the sun and Earth. The dip represents the transit of the planet. Since then the extended Kepler mission ( K2) has discovered more. The original mission, launched in 2009, found 4,696 exoplanet candidates, of which 2,331 are confirmed exoplanets, according to NASA. We know most exoplanets via the transit method in part because our world’s chief planet-hunter telescope – the space-based Kepler mission – uses this method. In fact, the word TRAPPIST stands for the ground-based TRAnsiting Planets and PlanetesImals Small Telescope, which – along with the NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and other telescopes – helped reveal the planets in this system. That was the case for the TRAPPIST-1 planets. Most planets are found via the transit method. Some exoplanets are found via the wobble methodĪ few exoplanets are found via direct imagingĪ few exoplanets are found via microlensing Artist’s concept of the TRAPPIST-1 system as viewed from Earth. Most exoplanets are found via the transit method Follow the links below to learn more about how astronomers find exoplanets. It’s this brightness of stars that makes exoplanets so hard to find. The artist’s concept above is a bit misleading because it doesn’t show how very, very bright stars are in contrast to their planets.
But several thousand other exoplanets – planets orbiting distant suns – are known to astronomers. The 7 known planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system are only 40 light-years away, and they are ripe for exploration via Earth- and space-based telescopes. Since the TRAPPIST-1 news hit the media on February 22, 2017, exoplanets have become an even hotter topic than they already were. Many exoplanets are found via the tiny dip in the star’s light that happens during planet transits. Artist’s concept of a distant planet transiting in front of its star.
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