That was a really great explanatory video! Thank you very much! I do have a question, though: wouldn't 2 planets orbiting around the same star and being of different sizes have a similar effect to the eclipsing binaries? In that case we should differentiate the two scenarios by looking at the period of the transits, right? (Because for the two planets they wouldn't occur at the same rate)
Thats’s a great question! You’re exactly right, when we have an eclipsing binary with odd and even transits, the time between consecutive odd transits is always equal to the time between consecutive even transits. So if the odd and the even transits were from two different sized planets, then they would have to be two planets with exactly the same orbital period, which isn’t dynamically stable. In other words, it’s not physically feasible to have two planets with the exact same orbital period. So checking the times between consecutive odd transits and consecutive even transits (not the time between odd and even) you can check whether it could potentially be a planet.
Hi - thanks as ever for the helpful videos. It feels like we are learning more as we go along, so thanks again.
Glad to hear it!
That was a really great explanatory video! Thank you very much! I do have a question, though: wouldn't 2 planets orbiting around the same star and being of different sizes have a similar effect to the eclipsing binaries? In that case we should differentiate the two scenarios by looking at the period of the transits, right? (Because for the two planets they wouldn't occur at the same rate)
Thats’s a great question! You’re exactly right, when we have an eclipsing binary with odd and even transits, the time between consecutive odd transits is always equal to the time between consecutive even transits. So if the odd and the even transits were from two different sized planets, then they would have to be two planets with exactly the same orbital period, which isn’t dynamically stable. In other words, it’s not physically feasible to have two planets with the exact same orbital period. So checking the times between consecutive odd transits and consecutive even transits (not the time between odd and even) you can check whether it could potentially be a planet.