Further Clues from Light Curves
In this activity, by studying light curves, you have seen three types of transit measurements: 1) transit depth, 2) transit duration, and 3) orbital period. Watch the animation to see how light curve patterns are different for a large planet versus a small planet transiting a star of the same size and brightness.
| Keyboard Shortcut | Action |
|---|---|
| Space | Pause/Play video playback |
| Enter | Pause/Play video playback |
| m | Mute/Unmute video volume |
| Up and Down arrows | Increase and decrease volume by 10% |
| Right and Left arrows | Seek forward or backward by 5 seconds |
| 0-9 | Fast seek to x% of the video. |
| f | Enter or exit fullscreen. (Note: To exit fullscreen in flash press the Esc key. |
| c | Press c to toggle captions on or off |
Use information from the video to answer the questions.
A large planet blocks more light than a small planet. The larger the planet, the greater the decrease in brightness, or transit depth. All orbiting objects follow the same laws of motion. Kepler’s third law allows comparisons of motion patterns for two or more planets orbiting the same star. Kepler’s third law predicts that a planet closer to its star has a higher speed and transits across its star faster than a planet farther away. Likewise, a longer orbital period is evidence that a planet is farther away from its star. Therefore, the transit durations of planets in a star system provide evidence for their relative distance of a planet from its star.
Click Visualize It to predict what the light curve might look like for planets with different properties.
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