Smallest Exoplanet Found
During NASA’s Kepler mission, they found the rocky exoplanet which is now named Kepler-10b. After eight months of observing, they have found that it is 1.4 times the size of Earth and is the smallest exoplanet found so far. They found this with Kepler’s ultra-precise photometer that saw the planet pass by its star, Kepler 10. This star is the first one that scientists have found that could potentially harbor a small transiting planet and is the brightest star that Kepler is documenting. This means that they are able to get a lot of information about orbiting planets. Since it is so small, the star only dimmed a small amount when it was seen. It orbits its star every .84 days which means it is 20 times closer to its star then Mercury is. This is proof that life on this planet is extremely unlikely. The W.M Keck Observatory in Hawaii was able to measure tiny changes in the stars spectrum called Doppler shifts, caused by tug exerted by the orbiting planet on the star.
Video about Kepler 10b
I am really interested in how they can find the distance from the star to the exoplanet by just the shift in light from the exoplanet passing its star. I would love to look into this and find out more about how this method works!
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