Questions tagged [planetary-transits]

For questions about transits of planets in front of the Sun, as seen from another, more distant planet; for example, the transits of Mercury and Venus which are visible from the Earth.

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Does the reflected light from Earth boost Venus' apparent magnitude when it is seen transiting the Sun?

During solar transits of Venus as seen from Earth, exactly 0% of Venus' disk is illuminated by sunlight, as expected. However during these transits, Earth is at opposition and fully illuminated by the ...
user267545's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
84 views

What are the orbital periods Jupiter, Saturn and earth?

What are the highest accuracy (and hence precision) orbital periods of Jupiter, Saturn and earth in units of days. Note have Allen’s Astronomical Quant(Cox1991)/ Wolfram-α / Wikipedia / 3ea. don’t ...
Joe Horwath's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
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Looking for a Specific Planet

I know my title isn't the most specific, but the planet I am looking for is. I have been looking through many exoplanets and I can't seem to find what I am looking for, the closest I have found is ...
Amoeba's user avatar
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Calculation of solar energy lack during Venus transit

The task The solar constant in Earth's orbit is $k$ ($k=1.37\text{ kW/m}^2$). Evaluate the solar energy lack due to the transit of Venus through the Sun diameter. Radius and orbit radius of Venus are $...
misha.physics's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
213 views

Fourier analysis of exoplanet transit to determine the number of planets in the system

Although I think that this can be done by simply looking at the transit graph, I was wondering if a Fourier transform of a transit (basically transforming transit depth/amplitude vs time graph to ...
Mercan's user avatar
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easy curve modeling package for transits that fits the data not just the parameters?

Does anyone have any recommendations for easy-to-use exoplanet transit light curve model fitting packages like batman, but that fits the data, not just the model parameters? Thank you so much. I need ...
strange_octopi's user avatar
3 votes
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71 views

How to obtain exoplanets transmission spectra from JWST's NIRISS data of WASP96?

I was having a look at JWST's NIRISS data of WASP96 (specifically at the x1dints fits file which should be already calibrated). From this, I would like to obtain a result in a fashion similar to the ...
gangio's user avatar
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1 answer
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How can I retro search for time periods with specific planetary alignments?

Let's say we have a planetary ecliptic longitudes of an unknown period. What program or software or procedure can one use to arrive at the range of time periods where the planets were in those ...
Profile name's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
155 views

Is one transit enough to be confident that we detected an exoplanet

Everything is pretty much in the title. I was thinking about the transit method and was wondering if the signature of a transit on the light curve of a star is distinctive enough to only need one ...
Tackwin's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
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Accurate formula for calculating the mass of an exoplanet using the transit method

A friend and I did some work on exoplanets with the help of a research institute (IEEC in Spain) for a major high school project. What we did was to "redetect" the exoplanet XO-6b through ...
user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
816 views

Probability of transit of an exoplanet in front of its star

I'm trying to calculate the probability of transit of an exoplanet in orbit around a star of diameter $d$, at a distance of $4d$ from its centre. Here's what I did: In this figure, we are only ...
Ambica Govind's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
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How often does the configuration of the Trappist-1 system repeat

My question is simply how long it takes for the 7 known planets in Trappist-1 to be in the same configuration in relation to their host star, and to each-other. Those seven planets are in a 2:3:4:6:9:...
skout's user avatar
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which fraction of the solar radiation corresponds the blocked part by Venus at its transit upon he sun?

Well, asumming that Venus orbits the Sun at 0.7233 AU and its diameter is 12,104 km, I can conclude that its angular diameter seen from the earth is ~1', then its represents ~1/31 part of the angular ...
Esteban Vera's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
72 views

Maximum distance at which planetary atmospheres can be analyzed during transits?

Is there a limit for how far away you could make a spectroscopic analysis of a planet when it transits its star, to detect bio markers and industry markers? What would the limit be with current ...
Yora's user avatar
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What is the most grazing exoplanet transit that has been reported with high confidence?

The abstract of Past, present and future stars that can see Earth as a transiting exoplanet reads: In the search for life in the cosmos, transiting exoplanets are currently our best targets. With ...
uhoh's user avatar
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Star brightness data to study exoplanets with the transit method?

Can someone tell me how I can find the star brightness data to study exoplanet using transit method? The file should be in comma separated value (CSV) format or any other formats that can be latter ...
Priyash Mistry's user avatar
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1 answer
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constructing a transit light curve [duplicate]

What type of equipment would I need to construct a transit light curve of a planet. It doesn't have to be an exoplanet. If somebody could chuck a list that would be really helpful.
John Smith's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
142 views

Lightkurve nan values after bin light curve

I am using lightkurve 2.0.2 library with Python 3.8.5 and astropy 4.2 for processing exoplanet transits. However when I want to bin light curve to fixed number of points, all values in ...
Michal's user avatar
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19 votes
1 answer
2k views

Exoplanet dip in transit light curve when the planet passes behind the star

In the animation below, I don't understand why the brightness slightly decreases when the planet is behind the star. Where does this effect come from?
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6 votes
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Did simultaneous transits of Mercury and Venus actually last occur in 373,173 BC?

According to the Wikipedia article for Transit of Venus, the last time a transit of Mercury and a transit of Venus occurred at the same time was 22 September of 373,173 BC. This is a Featured Article ...
Johansson McFleppers's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
390 views

How to calculate the limb darkening $\mu$ value

I am reading about limb darkening and I am very confused how to find the value of $\mu$. It states it can be found by $\mu = \cos(\gamma)$, but I am lost how $\gamma$ is found, or what it represents. ...
WDUK's user avatar
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How do scientists differentiate between a total and a partial transit of a planet passing in front of its star?

Say there's a star in our local neighborhood with a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting around it. This planet's orbit happens to lie approximately in our line-of-sight – we can only see a quarter of it ...
mirrorballsvega's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
167 views

Occultation of planets by other planets

Two Keplerian closed orbits always intersect: Source: Astronomy SE answer by Flater As seen from Earth, Venus appears larger than Mercury; this makes sense because Venus is both larger and closer ...
gerrit's user avatar
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24 votes
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Can a planet in our system eclipse the sun as seen from another one?

When the Sun, Earth and Moon get properly aligned, we get eclipses, where the Sun is partially or totally hidden by the Moon when seen from Earth. Is it possible for one planet of the solar system to ...
jcaron's user avatar
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What percentage of habitable-zone planets are detectable by transit?

I realize that the probability of detecting a planet by transit depends on the size of the star, the size of the planet's orbit, and the size of the planet; and ranges from ~10% to a small fraction of ...
S. McGrew's user avatar
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Using lightkurve to identify a planet

I have gotten LightKurve to work and plot a lightcurve to allow for the identification of possible transits. However is there a way I can get it to run and tell me if there is a possible transit in ...
JuhBuh's user avatar
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3 votes
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Records of Venus transits prior to 1761

Following the publication in 1716 of Edmond Halley's method to determine the solar parallax with the transit of Venus, many expeditions were launched to observe the 1761 transits. The following ...
usernumber's user avatar
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Is it still the case that the transit of Mercury can't be measured with sufficient accuracy to determine the Sun's distance?

The book Transits -- When planets cross the Sun, Maunder & Moore, page 44 states that Legentil [was] one of the first to realise that transits of Mercury could never be observed with sufficient ...
usernumber's user avatar
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Calculate mass of exoplanet from transit method

Is there any way to calculate (or at least estimate) mass of an exoplanet from transit method? I know that mass can be calculated with radial velocity method, however I would like to create program ...
Michal's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
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How to recognize exoplanet transit

I am using Python package lightkurve for exoplanets searching by the transit method. When I download light curve of some star and apply periodogram, I find frequency and power of periodic components ...
Michal's user avatar
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1 vote
2 answers
446 views

Transit of Uranus from Neptune

I would like to help find sources or calculations for the following dates found in Wikipedia (in French). The next Uranus transit from Neptune will happen : ...
A BOUZINAC's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
1k views

Calculate depth and duration of exoplanet's transit using Python, astropy or lightkurve

I am creating a program for the analysis of exoplanets in Python using Astropy and Lightkurve libraries. I have light curve of specified star and I would like to calculate depth and duration of planet ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Get orbital period of exoplanet from light curve using astropy.timeseries

I am using astropy and I would like to calculate orbital period of an exoplanet by its star's light curve. I follow tutorial in astropy docs and I use data from Kepler in Nasa Exoplanet Archive. ...
Michal's user avatar
  • 313
4 votes
1 answer
201 views

When was the atmosphere of Venus first observed?

Nowadays, atmospheres of transiting exoplanets are being characterized. We can measure the absorption of the star's light through the exosphere of exoplanets. The same can be done closer to Earth, ...
usernumber's user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
254 views

Can lunar occultation of Venus occur during solar eclipse?

Moon can occult Venus. Venus can transit across the solar disc. Moon can elipse Sun. Can all three celestial events occur at the same time - Moon is at front of Sun (partial eclipse is fine) and Venus ...
Leos Ondra's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
113 views

Between Mercury and Venus, which planet produces a longer transit? Assuming both planets describe same path on the solar disk

Is it even possible to give a definite answer to this question? There are a lot of factors involved in this like Earth's position and motion relative to the planets and of course their own motion and ...
peakcipher's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
103 views

How can a Grade-11 Student avail TESS data and learn to process?

As mentioned, I am a Grade-11 student. I have always been interested in Data Processing activities. This sums up my experience of working on Asteroid hunt Campaign under IASC (International Asteroid ...
Pranay's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
227 views

How could one use the transit of Mercury to try and find the Astronomical Unit?

I am trying to use the transit of Mercury to estimate the distance between the Earth and the Sun, or 1 AU. I know that I need to observe mercury from two antipodes, but I do not understand any of ...
Khanrad's user avatar
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4 votes
2 answers
193 views

Accuracy of Mercury transit calculations

What is the error range for calculations for the time of 1st-4th contacts for a given GPS coordinate on Earth? I observed through a telescope the 3rd and 4th contacts and compared against SkySafari ...
Automaton's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
685 views

Is it possible to see mercury transit "clearly" by the naked eye?

I don't have a telescope but I'm interested in seeing events like eclipses and transits. I'll use the atmosphere as my big natural lens. So I'll watch the upcoming mercury transit at the sunset time ...
user2824371's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
124 views

Why would a tidally-locked rocky planet have a first-order spherical harmonic surface temperature distribution?

The new Letter to Nature Absence of a thick atmosphere on the terrestrial exoplanet LHS 3844b (also ArXiv) analyzes the thermal infrared light curve from the system (about 4.5 to 5.5 um). The planet ...
uhoh's user avatar
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7 votes
1 answer
180 views

Why do transits of Earth across the Sun seen from Mars follow a pattern of occurring after 26, 79 then 100 years?

According to this answer transits of Earth across the disk of the Sun as seen from Mars: The (Arthur C.) Clarke story is quite correct. Earth (and Moon) would transit the sun from the viewpoint of ...
uhoh's user avatar
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2 votes
1 answer
7k views

Are these real paths of planets as traced from Earth?

Few days a go, I came across these two pictures of paths of planets as observed from Earth. They have a perfect geometric shapes. Actually, to me they look so beautiful and perfect, that they appear ...
Ubi.B's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
104 views

Challenge with a Transit Method Curve

My assignment is to identify how many planets are in this curve and what the orbital period is. I'm just confused on the way it looks, as most curves I've seen up to this date are more smooth and ...
Kayy Wang's user avatar
3 votes
2 answers
304 views

A few questions regarding the transit of planets

Here we will be concerning ourselves with the transit of a planet with it's parent sun. I have a few questions that I am not sure about: 1) Do all planets transit their parent sun? It would seem to ...
K Split X's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
504 views

How do astronomers know if a planet is orbiting a star, or it's simply another star in the background?

For example, if astronomers photograph a "planet", which is in close proximity to a given star, then this "planet", could actually just be another "star" in the background, many light years away. It ...
K Split X's user avatar
  • 1,059
5 votes
1 answer
402 views

When are the planets occulted by the sun?

There are numerous lists available of past and future planetary transits and occultations, but I can't find any that list transits behind the sun. Do the planets in our solar system ever pass ...
Robert's user avatar
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9 votes
2 answers
3k views

How does an eclipse differ from an occultation?

A comment in response to this question suggests that an eclipse differs from an occultation in that the former casts a shadow while the latter doesn't. This isn't particularly satisfactory since ...
CatchAsCatchCan's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
157 views

Can the period of the planet transit across the sun be calculated in the same way the eclipse year is?

I read from Wikipedia$-$Eclipse cycle that the eclipse year, which is the period of Earth's hitting a certain node of its orbit around the sun, that is, the ecliptic, and the moon's orbit around Earth,...
Captain Bohemian's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
284 views

How to compute the sun's (upper) transit

As detailed in https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/41450/is-there-a-simple-accurate-formula-for-calculating-transit-times-from-rise-and, the sunrise, and set times can accurately be used to ...
serv-inc's user avatar
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