The Kepler mission has searched for Earth-like planets by looking for the dip in the brightness of a star as a (potential) planet transits across it
Why will this technique actually miss the vast majority of planets around the stars it observes?
By searching for transits, Kepler can only detect those planets with orbits cross our line of sight to the star. This means the orbit must be very close to edge-on. Because planetary systems around other stars will have random orientations to us, most planets will not cross our line of sight and cause a dip in the star's brightness.
You might also like to view...
The diagram below shows the radial velocity curve of a double-line spectroscopic binary. Based on this radial velocity curve, which of the following statements is correct?
a.
Star A is twice the mass of star B.
b.
Star B is twice the mass of star A.
c.
Star A is ten times the mass of star B.
d.
Star B is ten times the mass of star A.
e.
Star A and Star B have the same mass.
How will the Sun end its life?
A) as a white dwarf B) as a white dwarf supernova C) as a massive star supernova D) as a neutron star or black hole
If a spring-operated gun can shoot a pellet to a maximum height of 100 m on Earth, how high could the pellet rise if fired on the Moon, where g = 1.6 m/s2?
A) 17 m B) 160 m C) 3.6 km D) 100 m E) 610 m
One watt is equivalent to
A. one joule/second B. one coulomb/second C. one calorie/second D. one horsepower