TWO Earth-like planets found in the HABITABLE ZONE (just 6% bigger than Earth!)

The holy grail of exoplanets research is to find an Earth-like planet in the habitable zone around its star (where it's not too hot and not too cold for life to exist) and then study its atmosphere with the James Webb Space Telescope to determine if life is present there. But to do that, we have to find these planets first. This is where the TESS mission comes in; this month a research paper was published claiming to have found TWO possible Earth-like planets in the habitable zone. The hope is that we can use JWST to study at least one of them.
Dransfield et al. (2024) - arxiv.org/pdf/2305.06206.pdf
My previous video on the history of exoplanets and how we discovery them - • The discovery of the f...
My video from last week on JWST directly imaging two new exoplanets - • JWST discovers exoplan...
Video on what phase folding of exoplanet light curves is - • What is phase folding ...
00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - The TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) mission
02:06 - How we find exoplanets
03:59 - Why the majority of habitable zone planets are around M-dwarf stars
05:31 - The red dwarf star TOI-715
06:21 - The first planet found: TOI-715b
07:14 - The second planet candidate TIC 271971130.02
08:10 - Can we study their atmospheres with JWST?
10:46 - Bloopers
Video filmed on a Sony ⍺7-IV
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👩🏽‍💻 I'm Dr. Becky Smethurst, an astrophysicist at the University of Oxford (Christ Church). I love making videos about science with an unnatural level of enthusiasm. I like to focus on how we know things, not just what we know. And especially, the things we still don't know. If you've ever wondered about something in space and couldn't find an answer online - you can ask me! My day job is to do research into how supermassive black holes can affect the galaxies that they live in. In particular, I look at whether the energy output from the disk of material orbiting around a growing supermassive black hole can stop a galaxy from forming stars.
drbecky.uk.com
rebeccasmethurst.co.uk

[@realdragon]

Meanwhile people on the other planet staring back at us: We found planet in habitable zone that is just 6% lighter than ours!

[@SorwestChannel]

"It seems they're cooking themselves up tho!" 🤣🤣🤣

[@icosthop9998]

​@@SorwestChannel yes

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

5.7%, because 1/1.06 is not exactly 0.94.

[@realdragon]

​@@Auroral_Anomaly It's within error

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

@@realdragon yeah, but its not the same for other reciprocals.

[@wild_lee_coyote]

People don’t realize how thin the atmosphere really is. Take a standard school size globe, and the atmosphere is slightly thinner than a paper clip. So the science to detect an atmosphere in an earth sized planet it’s very impressive.

[@rongenise7006]

Too bad the American people no longer believe in science. Welcome to the twilight of the enlightenment.

[@justincase4812]

Paperclip? Lengthwise, widthwise, or depthwise? Inch, centimeter or millimeter? Kinda bad descriptor using a paperclip to describe something's dimension.

[@UseQPixinDune]

​@@justincase4812It's pretty clear what the thickness of a paperclip means And the units of measurement don't matter. The thickness of a paperclip won't change with the unit of measurement you use

[@ReinReads]

It’s pretty clear the point they were making is the difference between the 3 dimensions of a paperclip 1 inch long 1 cm wide and 1 mm thick. We’re talking about order of magnitude differences.

[@user-pv9tl4wz5l]

It is as thin as a cellophane wrap.

[@patlussenden4536]

“Good Science takes time” - Dr Becky Words to live by

[@petermoller8337]

The old saying, “If you want to live forever, just wait” I’ll go now😊

[@beenaplumber8379]

Good science also involves false positives and false negatives. It's not perfect. I think it's hard for non-scientists to be tolerant of findings that don't pan out when they're studied more carefully, but the negative data is crucial to understanding anything in science.

[@Kualinar]

Not only the orbital period is longer for planets in the habitable zone making the transits easier to miss, but, the angle of it's orbital plane relative to us need to be much smaller. Otherwise, it will transit above or under the star, and, we'll miss it entirely.

[@rogerphelps9939]

Indeed. Given a certain incidence of exoplanets and assuming randomly orientated orbital planes we can easily calculate how many transiting exoplanets should be out there.

[@djnobad]

I was at the bus stop today and overheard a mother talking to her daughter about the talk she had to do for school. It was about these new exoplanets that had been discovered. The little girl couldn't find any information on them, so I piped in and recommended your channel as you might have covered it. And went on my way. Had to check you did and I'm so happy I found it as the little girl will have all the information she needs for her talk, in an understandable and accessible way. Love your work, and bloopers! :)

[@bearcubdaycare]

It's wild that there's already a history of exoplanet detection.

[@DanielSolis]

A note of caution to would-be tourists: It's the "habitable" zone, not the "comfortable" zone. Don't buy a ticket just yet. :)

[@robertpearce8394]

My house is habitable but not comfortable. I could turn the night storage heaters up, but burning £5 notes was cheaper.

[@AmonTheWitch]

well they're bigger than earth, so any ticket might be one-way, you ain't getting funding to build a rocket out of there

[@DesertBro]

Habitable meaning "the POSSIBILITY of a habitable environment" not the PRESENCE of such an environment.

[@MountainFisher]

Like "Edible" wild foods versus "Good to Eat" wild foods? Edible just means it won't kill you when you eat it like Durian fruit. Next to no one likes it. Most "good to eat" foods are farmed.

[@spvillano]

Well, Venus is within the sun's habitable zone. Enough said.

[@michaelsommers2356]

Consider this a house-warming gift.

[@elliotgillum]

Well look at you Mr. Moneybags.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@nabilmonster7533 It's not daily, but weekly, and it's certainly not boring.

[@johndd9140]

That's very kind of you! Good stuff 👏👏👏 There's a surprising amount of work in making these videos. Well done (and to Dr Becky too) 👍

[@johndd9140]

@@michaelsommers2356 👍👍👍

[@johndd9140]

@@nabilmonster7533 Please start making some videos, so we can start commenting on them

[@scottcartwright1718]

TESS has four cameras, and one points for most of the year in the same direction --- so we can get short-duration planets out at the satellite's "horizon", but longer-duration ones in the direction of the satellite's "zenith". Still crazy hard to find an Earth-year-long period as you say. Thanks for a great and solid video (as always) --- I'm on the TESS Instrument team and we're sharing it around! --- the care you take to walk through the topics clearly and accurately is really, really appreciated

[@onecupofconsciousnessplease]

Can I suggest a correction? At around 2:50 you say that with the transition method, it's easier to find planets that are larger and that are closer to their star. You explain that in both cases the planets block more light. That's true of course for bigger planets, but not really for planets closer to their stars. The apparent diameter of an exoplanet is proportional to the inverse of its distance to us. And when we're talking about light years of distance, a few Astronomical Units more or less isn't gonna make much difference. The reasons exoplanets with higher orbits are harder to find are the reason you did explain (shorter periods means quicker to confirm) but also the fact that far-orbiting planets must be almost perfectly aligned to pass in front of its star. A close orbiting planet means its orbit's inclination has more wiggle room for it to still pass in front of its star's disk. So that's why finding close orbiting exoplanets is more likely.

[@hm5142]

The reason that it is easier to find planets closer to the start is primarily that the probability of a transit is higher. If the planet is far from the star, the orientation of the orbit has to be perfect.

[@neoanderson7]

It's absolutely impressive how we're able to detect those type of things from such a distance. Our tech is getting better... 🙂

[@alang4190]

it feels like its almost scifi stuff

[@rogerphelps9939]

Actually, even amateur telescopes with the right cameras are able to detect some exoplanet transits.

[@JustinMShaw]

@@alang4190Sci fi from 70 years ago didn't even predict this stuff. Everyone back then assumed we'd have to go to other star systems in order to see the planets there. But since then we've figured out how to make much larger mirrors than we ever thought possible. And we use those with computers faster than we thought possible to make images that we didn't imagine we'd have yet.

[@AntonioGallo73]

@@JustinMShawtechnically we're still not "seeing" them :-)

[@JustinMShaw]

@@AntonioGallo73No, but the musings I saw back then would have been astounded at even the close up views of protoplanetary disks that we have. We're very close, and can now imagine possible telescopes that would directly catch a small and somewhat blurry image of an exoplanet.

[@mm-qd1ho]

Your videos keep getting better, which is impossible because they’ve been excellent from the start. As always, thank you!

[@mandelbraught2728]

Wonderful news! Like you said, there has been so much attention on planets around red dwarves or the larger planets. I've been doing my best to be patient because I know there are good reasons for this...and the work that has been done so far is just incredible...but now we're getting closer. Yay! Love ya Dr. Becky, you are one of the jewels of KZbin!

[@MCsCreations]

Thanks a bunch for the news, dr. Becky! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@itwaslikethatwhenigothere]

Iv been helping classify data from Tess on zooniverse for years. It's what motivated me to get my MSc in Astronomy. It's so cool to hear about discoveries like this!

[@sylviahoffman9440]

Interesting habitable planet potentials. Looking forward to seeing how further studies add and refine the list. Your song was perfect, btw 🎵

[@Aaramlias]

I love how excited you are about this ..... I know the feeling .... stuff like this is incredibly fascinating. At times I wish I had more people around me that could get as excited about new discoveries with exoplanets as I do.

[@bloodstockvip2176]

I bought your audiobook and have thoroughly enjoyed listening to it! Hope you find your birthday present soon in our solar system 👍

[@ericfielding2540]

Interesting results from TESS, and your usual informative and engaging discussion.

[@MrWinotu]

Hi Dr Becky, I love these videos and news you present each month. Astronomy is my passion since childhood. Now I am trying to pass it on to my children.

[@yomogami4561]

thanks for the information dr becky. looking forward to updates

[@artificercreator]

Yea! A respectful observation of other planets has been always awesome!

[@tcd4998]

Great science communicator! Nice work for a layperson like me. Thank you!

[@LordQueezle]

I've finally bought a copy of your book, Dr Becky! I'm very excited to read it :)

[@AndrewJohnson-oy8oj]

This is really exciting news. Thank you for this great analysis.

[@uncletrashero]

Earth is potentially a uniquely small planet for rocky habitable zone planets, and that feature could create a notably active tectonic plate system compared to "normal" habitable rocky planets, which itself can be a huge accelerator of evolution

[@user-ip5rf7ef4t]

Thank you for the update

[@MainSequence1]

Whenever I hear about transits, I always think about all of the planets we're not seeing, because we're not looking at the solar system edge on. I know theres the wobble method, but i haven't heard much about that lately.

[@zombiedad]

Wiw. Just wow! Super cool. Thanks Dr. 👍

[@VolkerHett]

Every time somebody found earth size(!) planets in the habitable zone, my first question is are they tidal locked?

[@AmonTheWitch]

tidally locked doesn't mean devoid of life

[@thegameplayer125]

especially since despite m stars aka red dwarf stars are by far the most common of all the stars, the habitational zone puts the planet close enough to be tidally locked which is why most scientists see just as little likelihood of there being life around the common and long living red dwarfs as there are the very rare and quickly dying blue giant stars

[@philroe2363]

And is there oxygen, and is there water, and is there carbon, and are the necessary elements for life present, and is the rotation rate correct for life, and does the stellar light emit the wavelength of light necessary for photosynthesis, and, and …. And

[@petersage5157]

Not a problem. Rather than live in the stark, burning day side or the cold, freezing night side, you'd just live in...The Twilight Zone. A zone of shadow and substance.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

​@@thegameplayer125Zeta Puppis is a rare blue giant visable to the naked eye. Besides a short life its bolometric luminosity is *830,000 times that of the Sun.* These stars do not form planetary systems due mainly to photoevaporation.

[@marvinsamuels1237]

Since first becoming aware of expoplanets in 2002, I've been completely fascinated by them. I find my imagination drifting off just wondering what types of environments they posses. It's just amazing! Love your vids Dr Becky!

[@barfar5569]

I always find these videos cool and interesting but I am always curious about the current practical applications for the gathered data as well as the envisioned future potential usage.

[@goeegoanna]

Fascinating, thank you.

[@michaelhoffmann2891]

I suppose the question to pose is: can either JWST or TESS detect and observe an earth-like planet around a start similar to our own? Say, G2-K2 ? Or flip it around: if placed at a distance but still aligned with the ecliptic, from how far away could JWST or TESS detect and observe Earth if pointed at our Sun, sufficiently to detect its biosignatures?

[@gordonwallin2368]

Cool! Cheers from the Pacific West Coast of Canada.

[@Daniel-kz3df]

Lovely vid! Thanks for being our star in astronomy news :) Out of curiosity, if these are confirmed as exoplanets without a shadow of a doubt with this light vs time plots, is there a "typical" next step that exoplanet scientists then go work on (like atmospheric conditions etc.)

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

First: do these planets planets even have atmospheres? The first two Trappist-1 planets do not. Red dwarfs, especially smaller M4Vs, are famous for producing flares that emit atmosphere stripping UV & X-rays.

[@danhat606]

Don't ever stop!

[@Jesus.the.Christ]

There was a paper published a couple of years ago that suggested that the flare effects of red dwarfs is limited to within 30 degrees of its poles. Which would mostly protect any planets from the effects of the flaring. I can't find the paper though...

[@DeepeningTheListening]

I think you mean this one: "Giant white-light flares on fully convective stars occur at high latitudes" by Ekaterina Ilin et. al.

[@Jesus.the.Christ]

@@DeepeningTheListening There it is. Thanks.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

Interesting. An yet the first two Trappist-1 planets have no atmospheres.

[@Jesus.the.Christ]

@@douglaswilkinson5700 So what? Mercury doesn't either. Not all planets will have atmospheres. The specific issue this paper addresses is whether or not flaring stars are able to scorch their planets. If a flaring star cannot scorch its planets doesn't mean a planet will have an atmosphere.

[@douglaswilkinson5700]

​@@Jesus.the.ChristTrappist-1 (M8V) has 7 Earth-sized planets in its system. Although b and c have no atmospheres the next 4 -- d, e, f and g -- are in the habitable zone. There is large number of people anxiously awaiting JWST to determine if they do indeed have atmospheres. If they do then it's possible other main sequence spectral type M have atmospheres. Since M dwarfs make up the majority of all stars finding atmospheres on Trappist-1s would has major implications for the search for non-terestrial life and planetary science.

[@sillyjellyfish2421]

I always womder whenever there's a talk about planetary candidates - what would Earth look like from that distance and would we be able to recognize it as a world with life if we were from one of those distant systems?

[@Yarn3ater]

I love your videos ❤

[@johncatto9454]

Thanks, DB.

[@johnkotches8320]

How wonderfully cheeky that you used Bowie's "Life on Mars" singing about extraterrestrial life 🙂

[@AceSpadeThePikachu]

Probably the biggest question that needs to be answered about planets orbiting red dwarfs is what effect does tidal locking have on their climate. We have models that can gives us ideas of what MIGHT go on there, but we need more data to know for sure. Also...now I just kinda want to see you do the "Life Forms" song from Star Trek: Generations. And if you haven't seen that movie...I wanna see you do a reaction video to it.

[@bobjackson6669]

Good show.

[@EdinMike]

😍 mesmerising

[@danthacreator]

Dr.Becky is Awesome! 😎

[@migrationsforschermitbreit6744]

We have to wait for PLATO, starting into space in 2026. Due to ultra high resolution it is observing sun-like stars (F, G, K stars) and we can estimate, that PLATO will find between 12 and 88 earth-like planets in the habitable zone around sun-like stars within 4 years of observation time. Amazing time in front of us!

[@hornet224]

The grass is always greener on a new exo-planet. Bags packed.

[@alcampbell5831]

Agree, very exciting!

[@lopiid]

Being a musician with higher level math skills, I love the science, but I keep coming back for the songs! You have a beautiful voice!

[@blackterminal]

Thank you .

[@sauercarey]

I do enjoy these kids. Thanks!

[@phillipgrammer9429]

The progress we have made in detecting exoplanets is so freaking exciting. I feel like we are closing in on finding another earth and its not a matter of if, but when.

[@NickMavromatis]

This is old news this paper came out last year. Great job explaining all that though. Would like it better though when you say “this past month” for it to actually be at least close to it cause for a moment I got really excited 😅

[@vipertwenty249]

This improvement in planet detection is good progress. Now we need to find a planet like the second one mentioned here but orbiting a stable star like ours rather than a red dwarf.

[@Planet-of-the-Gibbons]

"Life as we know" should not be our ultimate goal or limit in studying exoplanets, when it comes to searching for life.

[@AntonioGallo73]

what will be the next big step after/behind JWST that will allow us to get some real cool stuff about those planets surface temperature and better spectroscopic data? or to get decent readings we have to wait for kind of FTL engines first?

[@harryjamessmithmusic7762]

Great video! Not sure though if humans will ever leave the solar system; even the Moon is problem now

[@sinbadw00t]

ty becky!

[@barry8642]

Dorkin God bless it

[@Amira_Phoenix]

Dr Becky, you have a lovely singing voice

[@perlygatekeeper]

Do they assume a circular orbit when calculating the orbital parameters and mass. Could we tell from the data what we get during a observable transit event (averaged) what the eccentricity of the orbit is? thank you

[@klausolekristiansen2960]

What is the theoretical equilibrium temperature of the earth, disregarding the Atmosphere?

[@krisjupp]

Dr Becky can you cover the Roy Kerr paper ? What’s you take etc ?

[@maedhros9285]

11:21 Do you know the song on exoplanets by acapellascience? It has an absolutely amazing incorporation of "Pegasi 51b" into the lyrics...

[@alittlelooney5361]

What do you think about Cool Worlds Labs getting JWST time to search for EXO moons? Do you think they will find any? Very exiting to me.

[@CGWerft]

It's really cool to See how our picture of the Cosmos has changed. I still remember having a book as a Teenager in which they Said that other Stars might have No planets and how cool it was when they found 51 pegasi

[@WDIO-RADIO]

Hmm the RNA virons on an Earth like planet might be quite dangerous. They form first. Love the videos!

[@rgarbacz]

Thank you for an excellent info about this discovery. I have a question: assuming a planet would spin and had an atmosphere, which would make it emit some radiation during transit - likely in infrared - Is such a case possible to detect? If so, what would be another explanation of such infrared bump during transit (or in other words how likely it would indicate an atmosphere and spin)?

[@Healitnow]

It is great to discover exploreable exoplanets. It is a shame we can not access them.

[@Encephalitisify]

I watch so many off these space videos, but I could have sworn that they found a dwarf star that had hardly any flare activity. I think it ended in a 101 number.

[@graemebrumfitt6668]

Rite Dr Beck, I want more of Take a look @ TOI-715b beating up the wrong guy.... Please! TFS, GB :)

[@hurch1915]

It would be pretty awesome to find a small habitable zone planet which also has a large moon.

[@4Nanook]

Both of these are orbiting red dwarfs so closely that they will be tidally locked. That means all water is likely to be frozen out on the dark size and the planets will be inhospitable to life. When you start seeing Earth sized planets in the "real" habitable zone of G-type stars I'll be interested.

[@raysutton2310]

For those of us that are stongly /severely Red/Green colourblind it would be nice if you could 'flash' (heighlight in some way) the colour as you reference them; that way we can use contrast ot other visual clues to identify the colours in the diagrams you're describing. For example when you references grey dots & pink lines I had to use the geometric shape to differentiate because there wasn't the contrast or density (larger areas of the same colour) or a solid grey/pink boundary to give me a clue as to which was which.

[@user-Aaron-]

Genuinely curious, but don't most computers, phones, monitors, etc. have colourblind modes specifically to help with that sort of thing?

[@raysutton2310]

@@user-Aaron- True there are products out there for MacOS & Windows, I don't know how effective they are, but my primary laptop is Linux based and I'm not aware of any tools in the Linux ecosystem to help. I am looking into colour vision correction prescription glasses, but I'm not sure if they're legal for Driving either in the UK where I'm from or the US where I live. It's only really a problem with things like scientific papers or other document that use colour to convey 'dense' Information.

[@user-Aaron-]

​@@raysutton2310 Oh ok. Well I'm not super familiar with the Linux ecosystem but I know there's a GNOME Shell extension called "Colorblind filters" by GdH. I think you can also manually adjust colours through at least NVIDIA's graphics control panel and I believe AMD too (though that seems like a pain), and there are even some monitors that come with colorblind modes. Also, what would probably be the easiest solution if it works for you is a browser extension called Midnight Lizard that can apply fullscreen coloured filters. Anyway, feel free to disregard this comment but I thought it might be helpful for future situations.

[@mr89firebird]

What would Earth's temperature be, per the equation referred to in the video, if it didn't have an atmosphere?

[@elmurcis1]

From quick search, it would be 255K (or -18C/-1F)

[@clifflayne9073]

1) what is the energy output of that star 2) how far out do these planets orbit 3) what are their mass compared to earth 4) is either planet tidally locked (because one of them ain't gonna be a water planet if it's tidally locked)

[@JohnSmith-vm5cv]

Gotta love JupyterLab!!!

[@SteveSaxtonmusic]

Hahaha love the singing

[@Nivola1953]

2 questions first: at 4:09 from that chart my understanding is that M stars emits 400x more in the X rays part of the spectrum v. G type like the sun, if this is correct, wouldn’t this be a continuous sterilisation against any life forms? Yeah I know some organisms can withstand radiation, but they’re a small minority and probably, couldn’t evolve to a higher complexity. Second: for the transit method of observation to work, their ecliptic plane must be aligned in our direction, does it mean that there is a preference for exoplanets systems ecliptic planes to be close with the galactic plane of rotation?

[@jasonscottjenkins]

How many solar systems that we can see have the proper positioning so that we see it at the right angle instead of a top/bottom or an angled view of that system?

[@shadowdagger2]

For your consideration as an episode: The naming of Venus's "moon" Zoozve

[@dadsonworldwide3238]

Maybe this can help with all the form & shape 3 degrees of separation/motion horizon paradoxes across all fields of study & disciplines.

[@ryanwhitfield5068]

This is my new favourite song.

[@jakestephenson3115]

can you tell us more about the planet that the europe radio telescope team are reporting doppler radio seemingly to be comunication and pictures signals from alien transmissions please

[@scotttoner9231]

Dr. Becky: First, I absolutely love your sharing on the ‘Tube, and I thank you. Question here for you - I appreciate that biology is not your forte, but perhaps you have colleagues who might assist on your excellent forum? Rather than the constant ( and understandable) definition of the Goldilocks’ Zone based on water, what of the theoretical expansion of ammonia-based zones? How might this planet population change the metric for our potential life metrics?

[@erkinalp]

Ammonia based and methane based zones are further out.

[@artistphilb]

Seems like the size of the dip and the length of the transit would give you an idea of the length of the orbit before it transits again? Will the EELT be able to do this kind of work?

[@TheMarpalm]

Also a question- have we done enough, while focusing on a couple of stars with known planets to be able to say what percentage of stars have one or more planets?

[@johnladuke6475]

I always find the use of "size" to be misleading with planet discoveries like this. It's the _radius_ that seems to be close to Earth's size in this case. That's pretty promising, but I'm more interested in the mass, and using the radius to figure out surface gravity. So many of the rocky planets we find seem to be different enough in mass that (hypothetically) walking around on them would be pretty unpleasant. I keep hoping for one of similar mass _and_ radius, a place that wouldn't hurt to visit.

[@voidagent]

Even into the 1990's, it was widely thought that it would never be possible to directly image any exoplanet. There have been several directly imaged now, mainly by being able to mask out the central star. Prior to that, the only methods were occultation by the exoplanet or being able to detect gravitational perturbations of the star, very rarely. Occultation of the star by the passing planet is a good method but has many limitations. It is generally assumed that the plane of the planet's orbit will be perpendicular to the view from Earth and that is a very Earth-centric view. If the plane of the exoplanet's orbit is tilted with respect to the Earth, no occultation will be detected. Also, the effort has been for low-hanging fruit, trying to find exoplanets with orbits less than one Earth-year. This is leading to finding many systems where the planets have orbits of a few days, not years. What is needed is a space telescope that is many times more powerful than JWST that can directly image Earth-sized exoplanets of the stars within 40 light-years.

[@kaseyboles30]

The large Space-X craft can launch satellites even larger than j-web with that kind of folding mechanisms. We just need to design, fund, and launch one (or more) designed for finding earthlike planets.

[@randomviewer3494]

Hi Dr. Becky. From what I understand, we basically look back in time when we look at stars, considering how long the light takes to reach us. Does that mean that even if we find a planet with life on it through our observations, that by the time we see it, their star/sun has already blown up and everything there is long gone?

[@SamudraSanyal]

What would Earth's equilibrium temperature be using this methodology assuming we have no atmosphere?

[@petersullivan5240]

For exo-planets with orbits in the order of days or weeks; is there enough time to compress the four seasons, that may be a requirement for complex life, into such a short amount of time?

[@timehaley]

Just saying hi for the algorithm. It's the least I can do for all the work put in.

[@franksnowboarder]

Thank goodness exoplanets orbits line up with our viewing plane so we can continuously spot the same planets over and over. What are the odds of that happening?

[@ThePinkus]

A few years ago Eve Online used to run a "mini game" on identifying exoplanets by the transient method. I've been folding and marking dips thousands of times! 😀 It was supposed to be on real data. I don't know if anything came of it, though.

[@xyzpdq1122]

How large of a telescope would we need to resolve terrestrial detail on an exoplanet? (Obviously very large.)

[@chrislong3938]

I'd like to know more details of how the transit method really works. I realize that the planet has to transit from our POV in order to gain any info about it. But, for instance, can you differentiate between a Jupiter sized planet that transits above the 'artic' circle of its star thus only partially dimming it to the same level as an Earth sized planet transiting at the equator relative to our POV?

[@Dan-nj8du]

Once a potential target is found, instead of waiting months or years for the next transit, would it be possible to go back to recorded data where the target star was in frame, even if not the image target?