Detecting Earth from distant star-based systems
Have you ever played hide and seek? Imagine you are playing hide and seek with someone who is very far away from you, but you still want to find them. How can you find them?
Scientists use a similar concept to find the Earth from distant star-based systems. They look for something called a “transit”. Transit is when a planet moves in front of a star, and the star's light appears to decrease slightly. Imagine you are looking at a light bulb, and someone puts a hand in front of it. You'll see that the brightness decreases, because the hand is blocking some of the light.
So, scientists look for these transits. When a planet moves in front of a star, it blocks a tiny bit of the star's light, and this is detectable using powerful telescopes. Scientists measure how much light the star gives off normally, and then they pay very close attention to any changes. If they notice a decrease in the light that matches the timing and pattern of a planet's orbit, then they know that a planet might be there.
This method has proven successful many times, allowing us to detect many planets orbiting other stars, and some of these planets might even be like our planet Earth!
Scientists use a similar concept to find the Earth from distant star-based systems. They look for something called a “transit”. Transit is when a planet moves in front of a star, and the star's light appears to decrease slightly. Imagine you are looking at a light bulb, and someone puts a hand in front of it. You'll see that the brightness decreases, because the hand is blocking some of the light.
So, scientists look for these transits. When a planet moves in front of a star, it blocks a tiny bit of the star's light, and this is detectable using powerful telescopes. Scientists measure how much light the star gives off normally, and then they pay very close attention to any changes. If they notice a decrease in the light that matches the timing and pattern of a planet's orbit, then they know that a planet might be there.
This method has proven successful many times, allowing us to detect many planets orbiting other stars, and some of these planets might even be like our planet Earth!