Transiting Planets

Chart: Transiting Planets

Caption: Real data of the planet transit of the star HD209458b taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. This is the best measurement of its kind to date. A transiting planet tells us the planet’s radius directly. (There is a simulated graph of the brightness of the star, showing a sharp dip as the planet moves across the face of the star.) This information allows us to infer the planet's density and composition indirectly.

Source: HST/NASA

Source: Sara Seager
Speaker at NSF Funded The Universe From the Ground Up Astronomy Symposium

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