The most successful planet-hunting technique to date has been radial velocity, also called the Doppler wobble, with more than 400 newfound planets to its credit. Astronomers using this method look for a star's “wobble”—telltale shifts in a star's light spectrum—caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets. The more massive a planet and the tighter its orbit, the greater its effect on the host star. As a result, the majority of discoveries made with this method have been so-called hot Jupiters, because of their large masses and close proximities to their parent stars.
The most successful planet-hunting technique to date has been radial velocity, also called the Doppler wobble, with more than 400 newfound planets to its credit. Astronomers using this method look for a star's “wobble”—telltale shifts in a star's light spectrum—caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets. The more massive a planet and the tighter its orbit, the greater its effect on the host star. As a result, the majority of discoveries made with this method have been so-called hot Jupiters, because of their large masses and close proximities to their parent stars.
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