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[Music] How can you find planets orbiting other stars?

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So far, the most common and successful

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method is watching for distant eclipses, called transits.

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As a planet passes in front of its star,

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it blocks some of the light, causing a slight drop in brightness.

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A very sensitive camera, watching the same star 

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for long enough, can see two or more of these drops.

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The timing and amount of change provide information

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about the size of the planet and its distance from its host star.

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Larger drops usually mean larger planets.

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Complicated dip patterns can indicate multiple planets.

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The transit method has already found thousands of planets outside

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our solar system, and with upcoming missions scanning even more of the sky,

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it will likely find thousands more.

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[Music]