AST 195 NAME

Lab 9: FINDING EXOPLANETS (TRANSIT METHOD) Date:

Partner(s)

Objectives:

After completing this lab, you should be able to:

1. Understand the transit process.
2. Analyze a light curve to determine:
a. The number of planets orbiting a star
b. The orbital period of each planet
c. The radius of each planet
d. The distance to each planet

Introduction:

The existence of planets outside of our solar system had been speculated as far back as
early Greek astronomers. The first confirmation of a planet existing around another star
came in 1995. This discovery was made by the radial velocity method. This method
measures the change in the spectra of a star as it wobbles due to the pull of gravity of an
object orbiting the star.

Another method involves

measuring the change in
brightness of a star as a planet
passes in front and then behind
the star. This is called the
Transit Method. New methods
of light detection can measure
very small changes. The Kepler
Mission launched on March 6,
2009 is a space telescope
dedicated to finding planets by
this method. More than 100,000
stars will be monitored for 3½
years.

The transit method depends on

the alignment of a planet and a star so that from our view point the planet crosses between
us and the star. A limited number of stars will have this alignment, so a small percentage of
randomly selected stars will be available for transit study.

From looking at the data of planet transit two things can be learned about the planet. From
how much the light dims we can calculate the planet diameter and from how often the star

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dims we can find the orbital period. Once we have an orbital period we can find its mass
using Johannes Kepler’s 3rd Law of Planetary Motion.

Interpreting Transit Graphs

If we were to use a light detector

and a light bulb, at a specific
distance, a graph of light intensity
compared to time would show a
straight line. See Figure 1. Figure 1. Light detection of a bulb.

When a large book is passed slowly

in front of the light the light would
drop to zero, or 100% drop for the
light detector. See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Larger book passing in front of a light bulb.

In Figure 3 we see the same book

passing in front of the bulb only this
time moving faster. Notice that the
light brightness drops the same
amount, but for a shorter time. The
event of the book passing in front of
the bulb is called a transit. Figure 3. Faster transit time.

Figure 4 shows a light curve again,

but this time you see that the light
does not dim as much. This shows us
that the object passing in front of the
bulb is smaller and does not cover
the entire bulb.
Figure 4. Smaller object passes in front of bulb.
You should notice that in each graph, as the brightness changes, the light curve does not
drop straight down or back up. This is because it takes time for the book to cover or
uncover the light.

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Planet Transits

When a planet passes in front of a star the change in

brightness is very small. If the light decreases too much, it’s
probably not a planet. The time for a planet to transit in
front of a star takes from 2 to 16 hours. Planet transits have
been seen directly from Earth as long ago as 1639, but these
have been planets in our own solar system passing in front of
the Sun. In the winter of 1639 Jeremiah Horrocks watched
Venus pass in front of the Sun. Since then Venus and
Figure 5. Disk of planet Mercury transits have been viewed and measured many
against disk of star. times which helped to refine calculations of the distance
between Earth and the Sun.

In the following exercise you will work with transit light

curves that show transits over a period of years. If the
transit did not repeat then we would have to assume
something besides a planet passing in front of the star.
Multiple measurements of the same event also help to
improve the calculations.

Figure 6. Transit of Venus June

The size of a planet passing in front of a star is directly 8, 2004. Photo: J. Rienhardt
related to how far the brightness drops. The diameter of
the Earth is about 100 times less than the diameter of the
Sun. Its area as a disk shadow passing in front of the disk of the Sun is about 12,000 times
less. So, the amount that the light of the Sun would drop would be very little. About
0.0084%! Jupiter on the other hand is much larger. Jupiter’s diameter is 142,984 km, about
10 times less than the Sun. Jupiter would cause the brightness of the Sun to drop by 1%.
This would be much easier to see.

Analyze light curve graphs

There are 4 light curve graphs, A – D, for you to analyze. First you will look for number of
planets and planet size information from the graphs. When looking at these graphs you
will see a line of short jagged wiggles and a series of deep drop lines. The short wiggles are
noise in the detector and can be ignored. We are interested in the more definite repeating
deep lines. Each time a planet crosses in front of a star the light drops by the same amount.
A different planet will show a different light drop and frequency. Figure 8 shows a graph
with a planet. Also notice that we are now looking at longer time periods, days or years,
and much less dimming, tenths of a percent.

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 Noise

Figure 7. Hypothetical light curve (rienhardt).

Planet

Figure 7 shows light dimming by the same amount at a regular interval. This indicates one
planet. The planet dims the light by -0.11% and has an orbital period of about 7 days.

In the case of these transit graphs we are assuming that the star is a Type G star, like our
Sun, with the same diameter as our Sun. Our Sun’s diameter is 1.391 x 10 6 km. The area of
the planet divided by the area of the star gives us a change in brightness that will match
how much the star is dimmed by the planet passing in front of the star.

Knowing this we can use the % difference in luminosity to find the area of the planet disk
when we know the size of a star. The amount of dimming is related to the size of the planet
and allows us to use a simple formula to find the size of the star.

Since: Area = r2

And:  Luminosity/100 = (r2planet / r2star)

So:  Luminosity/100. = (rplanet/rstar)2

Then, solving for planet radius (rplanet):

ΔL

Example using Figure 7:

r planet =
√ ×r
100 star

The % difference for this example is 0.11%. (We know it is dimming, so we can
ignore the negative sign in the calculations.) We are assuming a G-type star like or
Sun which has a radius of 6.955x105 km. Now we have the size of the star and the %
difference in luminosity at transit, so, we can solve for the radius of the planet.
ΔL
r planet =
√ ×r
100 star
0.11
rplanet  Page46.955
5
of 9 x10 km
100
 rplanet = 2.3067x104 km

The radius of Earth is 6378 km. This planet is about 3.6 times the size of Earth.

We can also find the distance of the planet from the star using Kepler’s 3 rd Law of Planetary
Motion. Kepler’s Law says that the square of the period of the planets orbit (p) in Earth
years is equal to the cube of the distance (d) in AU.

p 2 = d3

Since we can find the orbital period by looking at the light curves, then we should be able to
find the planet distance from the star. We are using Earth years and the distance will be in
AU. 1 AU = 149,598,000 km

Example using Figure 7:

The period is 7 days which equals ~.0192 years. Kepler’s 3rd Law is p2= d3 which gives
3
d= √.01922=.0717

Since p is in years, d is in AU. Therefore, d = 0.0717 AU.

Procedure:

1) This is another graph of the light bulb and detector. Interpret what you think the
graph in Figure 8 means. (You may want to refer back to figures 1 - 4.)

Figure 8.

Explain your interpretation:

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Look at graphs A – D (from the Lab 9 Exoplanets Data Graphs document in Blackboard).

2) For each graph A – D, list how many planets you think are represented by the graph.

A: ___________1_____________

B: __________1______________

C: ___________2_____________

D: _________2_______________

3) For any planet found in each graph find its orbital period in years. Label each planet
by its graph letter and a number. If graph A had 2 planets they would be named A1,
for the one with the first downward spike, and A2, for the one with the second
downward spike.

Graph/Planet Period
#
A1 145 days
B1 20 days
C1 38 days
C2 150 days
D1 70 days
D2 125 days

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4) For each graph A – E, calculate the size (radius) of each planet.

Graph/Planet
L% Radius (km)
#
A1 80 74,592km
B1 25 41,698km
C1 50 58,970km
C2 40 52,745km
D1 .01 8,340km
D2 160 10,489km

5) Find the distance to each planet for graphs A – D.

Graph/Planet Distance (AU)

#
A1 .540au
B1 .145au
C1 .221au
C2 .553au
D1 .333au
D2 .489au

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Answer the following questions:

6) Are any of these planets at about the same distance from the star as Earth is to the
Sun (1 AU)? If so, which one(s)?

no

7) Are any of these planets close to the radius of Earth? If so, which one(s)?

C1 was the closest being 589,700

8) Are any of the planets close to the size of Jupiter (71,492 km)? If so, which ones?

A1 being 74,592km

9) What is a difficulty in finding planets that are similar to Earth’s radius?

no

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