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Institute of Physics (IOP)
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These resources have been reviewed and selected by STEM Learning’s team of education specialists for factual accuracy and relevance to teaching STEM subjects in UK schools.
The Transit Method
In this activity, developed by the Institute of Physics, students use a lamp and polystyrene balls to model how astronomers detect exoplanets using the transit method. After completing this activity, students should: *Understand that the transit of a planet in front of its star temporarily reduces the star’s measured brightness. *Understand that a light-curve is a graph of “brightness” against time. *Describe and explain how different factors (including size of exoplanet and orbital speed) affect the light-curve observed during a transit.
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