Know thy star, know thy planet
Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - 15:11
in Astronomy & Space
When it comes to exoplanets, astronomers have realized that they only know the properties of the planets they discover as well as they know the properties of the stars being orbited. For a planet's size, precisely characterizing the host star can mean the difference in our understanding of whether a distant world is small like Earth or huge like Jupiter.