Sunspots Might Be Fooling Us Into Seeing Distant Earth-like Planets
Saturday, July 5, 2014 - 14:50
in Astronomy & Space
Astronomers search for exoplanets by measuring shifts in the pattern of a star's spectrum - the different wavelengths of radiation that it emits as light. These "Doppler shifts" result from subtle changes in the star's velocity caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets, but Doppler shifts of a star's absorption lines can also result from magnetic events like sunspots originating within the star itself -- giving false clues of a planet that does not actually exist. read more