AST-1A Chapter Notes - Chapter 10: Hot Jupiter, Doppler Spectroscopy, Methods Of Detecting Exoplanets
Document Summary
Stars may be orbited by their own planets known as extrasolar planets. These lie beyond our own solar system. Stars are typically a billion times brighter than the light reflected by any orbiting planet. 2 general ways of learning about a distant object: Earliest observation in nasa"s kepler mission: combined both methods. (1) observing the motion of a star to detect the subtle gravitational tugs of orbiting indirectly: inferring the objects existence or properties without actually seeing it two major indirect approached: the most often used method planets. Objects orbit the systems balance point or center of mass. Planets exert gravitational tugs on their star which causes the star to orbit around the systems center of mass. (2) observing changes to a star"s brightness that occur when the planet passes in front of the star. Astrometric method: used to observe gravitational tugs. Uses precise measurements of stellar positions in the sky.
