The Physical Methods Technique to Detection of Extra-Solar Planets

Abstract

This paper aims to clarify some of the physical methods used to detect extra-solar planets. An exo-planet or extra-solar planets is a planet outside of our solar system that orbits a star. Most of these planets have been discovered indirectly, because their proximity to a bright star makes seeing them directly very difficult. This has led to the development of a variety of technologies that can detect many planets outside our solar system. There are principal techniques which are used: Transit photometry, Gravitational micro-lensing, Pulsar timing and Doppler spectroscopy. Doppler spectroscopy technique is the most successful so far in finding extra-solar planets. It is still the most effective method for detecting exo-planets from Earth.