研究成果藝廊

開啟圖片

Screen capture of an animation generated by a newly developed code to simulate the transits of ringed exoplanets.

Top: simulated image of a ringed exoplanet passing in front of its host star. The rings are shown red (not black) because most, but not all, of the starlight has been absorbed or scattered away from the observer by the ring material. Bottom: simulated data that would be recorded for this event using a telescope that monitors the brightness of the star over the course of the transit event. The green line indicates the transit of the planet were it to not have rings, while the white line and data points show the signal we would receive from the planet with its rings, indicating the degree to which the presence of the rings change the transit signal.