Keywords
Exoplanets, spectroscopic orbit, transit
Definition
Transiting planets are those that orbit stars beyond the solar system and are observed to transit across the disk of their host star.
History
The discovery in 1995 that a Jupiter-mass planet orbited the solar-type star 51 Pegasi with the remarkably short period of 4.2 days opened the eyes of astronomers to a promising new way to detect and study exoplanets. If planets in such tight orbits were common, then the chances that some of them would transit their host stars could be as high as one in ten, because the probability that a planet’s orbital plane is properly aligned to cross the disk of its star is roughly R S/a, where R S is the radius of the star and a is the radius of the orbit, that is, the distance from the planet to the star. By 1999 enough close-in planets had been found by the radial-velocitymethod that the odds were good that one would soon be found that transited its host star. As often happens in science, the...
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References and Further Reading
Charbonneau D et al (2000) Detection of planetary transits across a Sun-like star. Astrophys J Lett 529:45–48
Henry GW et al (2000) A transiting “51 Peg-like” planet. Astrophys J Lett 529:41–44
Holman MJ et al (2010) Kepler-9: a system of multiple planets transiting a Sun-like star, confirmed by timing variations. Science 330:51–54
Knutson HA et al (2007) A map of the day–night contrast of the extrasolar planet HD 189733b. Nature 447:183–186
Mayor M, Queloz D (1995) A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star. Nature 378:355–359
Swain MR et al (2008) The presence of methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet. Nature 452:329–331
Winn JA et al (2010) Hot Stars with Hot Jupiters Have High Obliquities. Astrophys J Lett 718:145–149
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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Latham, D.W. (2011). Transiting Planets. In: Gargaud, M., et al. Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-11274-4_1604
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