From Planet Pride on Myspace, via ESA.


This is an artist's impression of a Jupiter-sized planet passing in front of its parent star. Such events are called transits. When the planet transits the star, the star’s apparent brightness drops by a few percent for a short period. Through this technique, astronomers can search for planets across the galaxy by measuring periodic changes in a star’s luminosity.



The first class of exoplanets found by this technique are the so-called “hot Jupiters,” which are so close to their stars they complete an orbit within days, or even hours.

The French have launched a 'planet-hunter' telescope called Corot. This telescope will measure fluctuations of light received from stars to detect when planets of 'all sizes' move between the star and the telescope. The article contradicts itself on this point, however. At one point, they state that planets found will be rocky planets "a few times the size of earth". This method of planet hunting is currently used on Earth, however, from earth based telescopes the planets must be very large to detect the drop in light from a star. Researchers believe that they will be able to detect much smaller planets using this method. Let's hope so, I need some elbow room.