Yoonan was sitting in the pilot seat of his spaceship, Star-Maru, just like every other day. Beside him, his robot friend Byeol-i was watching the screen with sparkling eyes.
“Byeol-i, where are we headed today?”
“We have a special mission today, Yoonan. We’re going to watch a star far away and see if there’s a planet orbiting around it.”
“How can you tell if there’s a planet around a star? It seems too far away to see.”
“You’re right, actually seeing a planet directly is really hard. So scientists use a clever trick instead.”
“What kind of trick?”
“It’s called the ‘transit method.’ When a planet passes in front of its star, the star’s light dims just a tiny bit. If you keep watching for that dimming, you can tell there’s a planet there, even if you can never actually see it.”
“You can tell just from the starlight getting dimmer?”
“Exactly. It’s like a small coin passing in front of a flashlight, blocking just a sliver of the light.”
A star appeared on Star-Maru’s screen. A moment later, the starlight really did flicker, ever so slightly.
“Byeol-i! Did you see that? The light just dimmed a little!”
“That’s it, that’s the signal. I think we might have just found something, Yoonan.”
“Did we really discover a new planet?”
“It’s very possible! Using this exact method, scientists have discovered more than 5,000 planets outside our solar system, circling other stars.”
“5,000? Whoa. Are any of them like Earth?”
“A few are known to be pretty similar to Earth in size and temperature. Scientists get especially excited about those, because there’s a chance they could host life.”
“So maybe the one we just found could be like that too?”
“We don’t know yet. This is really just the beginning. We’ll need to study it much more closely to find out what kind of place it really is.”
“So what’s this planet’s name? Does it have a pretty name like Earth?”
“Not yet. When a planet is first discovered, it just gets the star’s name with some letters and numbers added on. Pretty boring, right? But once it’s confirmed to be real, the people who discovered it might get to give it an official name.”
“So maybe we could name it?”
“Maybe. But first, we need to make sure this planet is really there.”
Yoonan stared at the flickering starlight on the screen for a long while. Somewhere out there, a nameless planet felt like it was waiting for him, right at this very moment.
“Byeol-i, can we come back here again sometime?”
“Of course, Yoonan. Star-Maru is always ready.”
“Scientists can find planets they can’t even see directly by watching for the tiny dip in starlight when a planet passes in front of its star.”
Your Turn Now
Share with someone today what you remember.
- What happens to a star’s light when a planet passes in front of it?
- What is this planet-finding method called?
- About how many exoplanets have been discovered so far?
(Check when ready: 1. It dims just a little. 2. The transit method. 3. More than 5,000.)
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