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Lesson 5

How Doppler Shifts and


Transits Can Be Used to
Detect Extrasolar Planets
Objective

 At the end of the lesson, you should be


able to explain how Doppler shifts and
Transits can be used to detect extrasolar
planets.
 How can scientists identify these
exoplanets knowing that planets do
not have their own light to emit?
Learn about it!
 Astronomers before have
wondered if the planets within
the solar system are not the
only planets in the whole
universe. Since 1995, they
have discovered so many
extrasolar planets.
Learn about it!
 An extrasolar planet or an exoplanet is a
planet that revolves around a star other
than the Sun. There are several ways that
can be used to find extrasolar planets like
Doppler shifts and transit. These two
methods are both indirect way of detecting
an extrasolar planets. Direct methods like
taking a picture of the planet itself is only
possible for near planets and is so hard to
be done for those that are millions of light
years away.
Learn about it!

 The Doppler Shifts

 Doppler Effect is the change in


wavelength of light emitted by an object
due to its motion. This method is used to
detect the speed of distant objects and
can also be used to detect extrasolar
planets.
 In Physics, when sound source is moving towards an
observer, the wavelengths of the sound tends to
move closer to each other creating a sound with
higher pitch since shorter wavelength corresponds to
sound with higher frequency and thus results to
higher pitch and when the sound source is moving
away from an observer the wavelengths tend to be
further apart creating a sound with lower pitch until
nothing is heard by the observer. This happens to
light as well. When a light source moves closer to an
observer, light waves are compressed producing
shorter wavelengths corresponding to blue light
(blueshifted). On the other hand, when a light source
moves away from an observer, light waves are
stretched producing longer wavelengths
corresponding to red light (redshifted).
 This information is used by astronomers to
detect stars whose spectral lines are moving
back and forth because these stars may have
planets orbiting them. These spectral lines
shows that a planet is moving around it since a
planet having its gravitational attraction to the
star affects the star’s line of orbit. Just like our
Sun and the planets orbiting around it, each of
these bodies is exerting gravitational force on
one another and this attraction creates a
common center of mass for each pair of
planet-sun in the solar system. Since Sun is so
massive compared to any of the planets in the
solar system, this common center of mass
resides inside the sun and this makes the Sun
somehow wiggle on its movement causing a
shift on its spectral lines.
 This same thing happens to other stars with
exoplanets orbiting them. When a star has an
exoplanet orbiting around it, as observed by
scientists Tthe star sometimes spins towards earth
and sometimes away from earth . When Doppler
shifts are observed on a star there is great
possibility that there is an extrasolar planet orbiting it
since the shift in the spectral lines of the star is due
to the gravitational attraction between the star and
an unseen planet. Unfortunately this method can
only detect planets that have gravitational force
significant enough to cause change in the spin of its
parent star which means this method can only detect
planets with huge masses. Extrasolar planets as
heavy as earth are hard to be detected using this
method.
What do you think?

 If our planet earth passes across the


sun, how do you think would the earth
look like? Will it cause a significant
decrease in the brightness of the sun?
Key Points
 Doppler shift is used to detect extrasolar planets by
detecting stars whose spectral lines periodically shift to
either red or blue, this leads the scientists that an
extrasolar planet might be orbiting around it.
 A star and a planet orbiting around it creates a common
center mass where they tend to move around, but since
stars are more massive compared to a planet the
common center of mass is usually found inside the star
making the star wiggle in its motion which causes the shift
in its spectral lines as seen on earth.
 Transit is when a planet passes across its parent star that
causes a significant decrease in the star’s brightness.
 Both these methods can only detect extrasolar planets of
big masses since there must be a significant effect in
either the parent star’s orbit or brightness must be seen
and this is only possible with extrasolar planets of huge
mass.

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