Transit graph: Kepler measures the brightness of stars

508881main KOI 72 STILL 6k 1 full full Transit graph

[videopress AizKc7V6]

 

Kepler measures the brightness of stars. The data will look like an EKG showing the heart beat. Whenever a planet passes in front of its parent star as viewed from the spacecraft, a tiny pulse or beat is produced. From the repeated beats we can detect and verify the existence of Earth-size planets and learn about the orbit and size of the planet. The scientific data from Kepler come in a different way than most astronomy missions. The Kepler spacecraft will not produce pretty pictures or even colorful spectrograms, but rather light curves derived from brightness changes collected from transits.