Question

Question 1: Congratulations, you have been placed in charge of analysing data from the (fictional) Darth Vader Planetfinding Telescope. For the past 15 years, the telescope has been tasked with finding exoplan- ets and exomoons using the transit method. The first dataset you analyse is of the (fictional) star Guinness, which is 1000 light years away. The full 15 year light curve and a zoomed-in version of the first 5 years are illustrated in Figure 1. Using Figure 1, answer the following questions: a) How many exoplanets do you think are orbiting around Guinness? How do you know? [1 marks] b) What are their orbital periods? [2 marks] c) How many orbits are visible in the full 15 year light curve for each exoplanet? [2 marks] d) Which planet is the smallest? How do you know? [1 mark]

Answer 1