How do astronomers find extrasolar planets?
Astronomers cant just look up, point their finger, and say “Oh look! Theres another new planet!” Astronomers use different techniques to locate extrasolar planets. It is hard to find extrasolar planets because the stars they orbit are light years away and are VERY bright! With even the most powerful telescopes you cant see these planets orbiting near their glowing stars. Sometimes astronomers detect the dimming of a stars light as its planet passes in front of it. One of the techniques used is to watch stars to see if they slightly wobble. This works because a star wobbles from the slight gravity of an orbiting planet. Even though stars are much bigger than planets, the planets have just enough gravity to tug a little bit on the star that they orbit. This causes the star to wobble. Some stars have wobbles inside of wobbles, which means that there is probably more than one planet orbiting the star. Another way astronomers find extrasolar planets is to use radio telescopes to detect the
