3 ms·
You're correct -- the orbital speed and path tell you nothing about the mass. A grain of dust will follow exactly the same orbital path as, say, Jupiter. It's
by hugh_ 17y ago
You're correct -- the orbital speed and path tell you nothing about the mass. A grain of dust will follow exactly the same orbital path as, say, Jupiter.
It's the redshift/blueshift of the actual star that you need to measure.
- bioweek 17y agoOh so when the planet is between us and its star, it pulls the star towards us which blueshifts the light? That sounds hard to detect.
- fh 17y ago> That sounds hard to detect. Well, obviously you need really precise spectrometers, but just because the effect is tiny, doesn't mean that you can't detect it.