2
$\begingroup$

Is one lightcurve containing a dip in brightness obtained from the transit method sufficient to obtain or estimate the orbital period of an exoplanet - such that one (first) observation could be used to reliably schedule a second observation for confirmation in advance?

$\endgroup$
7
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ No. You don’t know the size of the object, its (absolute) speed (as opposed to angular), its distance, etc. You don’t even know if the object will pass again in front of the star! $\endgroup$ Jan 20, 2023 at 23:44
  • 1
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @uhoh They make a good case there, but astronomers might not have all such relevant information about the observed event and its associated star… $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 2:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Oh! and this is why I commented instead of answered… ;-) $\endgroup$ Jan 21, 2023 at 2:14
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @PierrePaquette it's a proof of concept but this question needs a complete answer based on different cases (as you have pointed out it depends a lot on the information available to try to model the primary) which I'm not really up to. $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Jan 21, 2023 at 5:53

0

You must log in to answer this question.

Browse other questions tagged .