How do scientists see planets that are far away such as ross128b or proxima b ? Or even tres2b ?
Are there super big telescopes that can do that ?
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answers:
jehen say: They don't see them. The infer them by dimming of light from the distant star as a planet transits, or infer them by the 'wobble' of the star against the background stars. What they can infer from these slim measures is quite astonishing - the size, mass, gravity and orbit of the planet. In some cases whether it is rocky or gaseous, and if rocky, does it orbit in the 'habitable' zone of the star. But we have never 'seen' any of these planets or determined their precise makeup, atmosphere, or features.
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Tom S say: Most are not "seen" there are some which have been directly imaged. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_di...
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Ronald 7 say: They look for the real movements of Stars and whether they " Wobble " in their path
This can be a sign of a super large planet orbiting it
They also look for any slight dimming in its brightness which could be due to an eclipse from straight on
Gas Giants Orbiting a star were the first to be found, and through more advanced searches, like Spectral Optics have shown others. even Terrestial
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I can fly...! say: They use detection methods like stars suddenly getting dimmer.
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quantumclaustrophobe say: In most cases, the planets can't be seen directly... but, they're *detected* using different means. Kepler watched for a regular, periodic dimming in the stars light for example. There's astrometry, watching the star 'wobble', the star shifts it's position as gravitation from orbiting planets act on them. Variations in red shift can also indicate a planet is in orbit about the star.
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Nyx say: There are 5 methods used to find exoplanets.
https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/5-ways-to-fi...
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busterwasmycat say: sort of. they do not actually "see" them. they see how they affect the nearby star (brightness changes and/or slight movement of the star), and you can get an idea of composition from the change to spectra. But they do need a very powerful telescope to even do that.
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Dixon say: They have to infer their existence from other observations
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Morningfox say: The telescopes are big, but not super big. What they use are super sensitive: they can detect the difference in the light from the star when then planet passes in front of the star.
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Sukrit say: there are
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jehen say: They don't see them. The infer them by dimming of light from the distant star as a planet transits, or infer them by the 'wobble' of the star against the background stars. What they can infer from these slim measures is quite astonishing - the size, mass, gravity and orbit of the planet. In some cases whether it is rocky or gaseous, and if rocky, does it orbit in the 'habitable' zone of the star. But we have never 'seen' any of these planets or determined their precise makeup, atmosphere, or features.
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oeman50 say: There is one telescope, called Kepler, that was launched into solar orbit to do this very thing, find planets at other stars. It looks for the dimming of light from the image of the star that would be caused by a planet coming between the telescope and the star.
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