Transits - kepler

[EternalOptimist]

when you are looking for new planets, you look mainly for transits. i.e. when the planet crosses the face of its star, the star dims

so far about 1,000 exoplanets have been identified


but.. these planets are on the plane between our star and theirs

that means there must be millions of them that we cant identify by looking for the transit. and thats in the tiny little local spot we have been looking at

 

[alluvial]

Nah,I'm sure the creator was being tidy & lined everything up.

 

[Ticktock]

Nah,I'm sure the creator was being tidy & lined everything up.

Well, sort of, yes.

Part of star and solar system creation means that, on the whole, planets will orbit roughly on a plane. So, if from our vantage point we see one planet orbiting a star then there's a good chance we're looking at it from the right angle to see more (we still might not due to size, etc).

If we see a star with no planets apparently orbiting then there's a chance that we're looking from the wrong angle, perhaps top down on the plane, so the the planets will never transit the star.