24 Dec
2012
24 Dec
'12
3:41 p.m.
Hello, (and merry Christmas to everyone), They used telescopes and they were looking for the wobbling of a star to see if there is an important mass around, this is why the first planets to be found were very big in size. Now, with more modern instruments, I am not sure what is the method. ... that first method was of course imprecise, the size of the planets prohibits any normal human life I would say. that first method is explained here : the radial velocity, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methods_of_detecting_extrasolar_planets nowadays, it became a bit more complex, Best regards, Simon Plouffe