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COROT finds exoplanet orbiting Sun-like star

24 July 2008

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One of the methods for detecting exoplanets is to look for the drop in brightness they cause when they pass in front of their parent star. Such a celestial alignment is known as a planetary transit.

From Earth, both Mercury and Venus occasionally pass across the front of the Sun. When they do, they look like tiny black dots passing across the bright surface.

Such transits block a tiny fraction of the light that COROT is able to detect.

Credits: CNES

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Light-curve of COROT-exo-4b's parent star

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The light-curve of the parent star of the newly-found exoplanet, COROT-exo-4b. The X-axis shows time in heliocentric julian days (HJD).

COROT-exo-4b is an exoplanet of about the same size as Jupiter. It takes 9.2 days to orbit its star, the longest period for any transiting exoplanet ever found.

Credits: COROT exo-team

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