Know about the various methods used to discover numerous exoplanets
Learn about the techniques used to detect extrasolar planets.
© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Space is the world's largest garbage dump.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.Let's ask the Loon Ranger.Media Editors: Michele Metych , Lauren Sims
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JPL/NASALearn about the discovery of exoplanets in the TRAPPIST-1 system in this 2017 video from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The planets were discovered by scientists using the Spitzer Space Telescope and several ground-based telescopes.
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about extrasolar planets, also called exoplanets.
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© Open University (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A discussion of various historical supernovae.
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© MinutePhysics (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Infrared energy from stars causes space and the night sky to appear dark.
News •
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• Oct. 16, 2026, 3:00 AM ET (Space)
Transcript
It took Clyde Tombaugh half a year of manually looking at photographic plates containing over two million stars before he discovered Pluto. And it's in our own solar system. So how on earth does one find a planet orbiting a distant star? You could just look. But stars are so far away and so bright compared to their planets that it's really hard to just look at one and see a planet orbiting it.
Direct discovery of new exoplanets by just looking is essentially limited to relatively nearby stars with very large planets very far away from them. Think 10 times the size of Jupiter and with orbits at least as big. The vast majority of exoplanets have been found indirectly by observing their effects on their parent stars. For example, a planet passing in front of a star will make that star darker for a little while. And the amount it darkens will tell you about the size of the planet relative to the star.
Of course, this trick only works if the planet's orbit is tilted perfectly to pass between us and its star. And on average, less than 1% of Earth-like planets will have this convenient orbital orientation. We have managed to find a lot of exoplanets this way by exhaustive satellite searches, but you could instead look at the effects planets have on the motion of stars. As we know, planets don't orbit stars. Rather, both orbit around their combined center of mass.
Stars are so heavy the, center of mass is often inside the star, but the star will nonetheless be moving. That motion manifests itself as a teeny tiny wobble in the velocity of the star relative to us, which we determined by carefully measuring the red or blue Doppler shift of the star's light. Both these indirect methods are most effective at finding big planets close to their stars, because the speeds involved and the amount of light blocked are greater, and also because close planets orbit more often, so we don't have to wait as long to notice their effects.
There are other more complicated and fancy methods that can find planets, which are harder to notice by a star wobbling or star-like blocking. And all of these together have combined to help us discover more than 1,800 exoplanets as of 2014. Sorry, Pluto you've been x'ed out.
Direct discovery of new exoplanets by just looking is essentially limited to relatively nearby stars with very large planets very far away from them. Think 10 times the size of Jupiter and with orbits at least as big. The vast majority of exoplanets have been found indirectly by observing their effects on their parent stars. For example, a planet passing in front of a star will make that star darker for a little while. And the amount it darkens will tell you about the size of the planet relative to the star.
Of course, this trick only works if the planet's orbit is tilted perfectly to pass between us and its star. And on average, less than 1% of Earth-like planets will have this convenient orbital orientation. We have managed to find a lot of exoplanets this way by exhaustive satellite searches, but you could instead look at the effects planets have on the motion of stars. As we know, planets don't orbit stars. Rather, both orbit around their combined center of mass.
Stars are so heavy the, center of mass is often inside the star, but the star will nonetheless be moving. That motion manifests itself as a teeny tiny wobble in the velocity of the star relative to us, which we determined by carefully measuring the red or blue Doppler shift of the star's light. Both these indirect methods are most effective at finding big planets close to their stars, because the speeds involved and the amount of light blocked are greater, and also because close planets orbit more often, so we don't have to wait as long to notice their effects.
There are other more complicated and fancy methods that can find planets, which are harder to notice by a star wobbling or star-like blocking. And all of these together have combined to help us discover more than 1,800 exoplanets as of 2014. Sorry, Pluto you've been x'ed out.
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