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.