This lecture examines current planet searches and techniques, and summarises some of the known properties of extrasolar planets. Mixture of gases that surrounds a planet. A point that represents the entire mass of a system of masses or a single rigid mass. Massive bodies in space orbit around a centre of mass. A measurable shift in the wavelength of a travelling wave caused by the relative motion of the source and observer.
Light is influenced by the doppler effect.
Stars with relative motion towards us appear blue, i.e. the entire spectrum of star light shifts toward the blue end of the spectrum or is blue-shifted. Stars speeding away from us appear red, i.e. the entire spectrum is red-shifted. The measure of the degree of elongation of an ellipse. Bodies ranging in size from metres up to hundreds of kilometres in diameter that formed during the process that formed the planets by accretion. Most planetesimals accreted to form the planets.