![]() ![]() To do this, a spectometer is used to measure how the star’s spectral lines are displaced due to the Doppler Effect. To put it simply, this method isn’t to search for planets themselves, but to search for the appearance of ‘wobbling’ planets. This movement is caused by the presence of planets that exert a gravitational influence on their respective sun. This method relies on observing the spectra stars for signs of ‘wobble’, where the star appears to be moving towards and away from Earth. ![]() There are five commonly used methods scientists use today to discover exoplanets. In this article, we are going to talk about what techniques scientists have come up with to discover exoplanets, as it’s not as straightforward as ‘direct imaging’ discovery, as they are so far away often they are too small to identify, so clever techniques have been adopted to make the discoveries. The number of confirmed planets is in the thousands and rising rapidly, and as technology evolves and more can be seen, this number is likely to skyrocket. The closest exoplanet to Earth is called Proxima Centauri b, this exoplanet is roughly 4 light-years away. NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered that there are more planets than stars in the galaxy. This is called ‘direct imaging’ and only a tiny amount of discoveries have been made this way. It’s known to be very rare for astronomers to see an exoplanet through a telescope the way you might see Saturn through a telescope from Earth. The first exoplanets were discovered in the 1990s and since then thousands have been identified. Most of the exoplanets discovered so far are in a relatively small region of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Most orbit another star but some are free-floating exoplanets, called rogue planets which orbit the galactic centre and are untethered to any star. Other naming systems exist.An exoplanet, or extrasolar planet, is a planet outside the solar system, usually orbiting another star in our galaxy. A limited number of exoplanets have IAU-sanctioned proper names. A provisional IAU-sanctioned standard exists to accommodate the designation of circumbinary planets. If several planets in the same system are discovered at the same time, the closest one to the star gets the next letter, followed by the other planets in order of orbital size. Letters are given in order of each planet's discovery around the parent star, so that the first planet discovered in a system is designated "b" (the parent star is considered to be "a") and later planets are given subsequent letters. For exoplanets orbiting a single star, the IAU designation is formed by taking the designated or proper name of its parent star, and adding a lower case letter. The convention for designating exoplanets is an extension of the system used for designating multiple-star systems as adopted by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). Main article: Exoplanet naming convention ![]()
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