Sara Seager delivers a lecture on exoplanets and existing planet detection techniques. In this video, Seager describes the basics behind this new science and the revolutionary findings associated to the discovery of new planets. In an extensive introduction to the radial velocity technique, she explains the elementary principles underlying this theory, its spectrum of effectiveness, and limitations to its use. Seager brings students through an in-class example of planet mass derivation using radial velocity amplitude, and shares real-life instances of celestial bodies uncovered by this approach. She reviews key aspects of a the transit method, including the substantial information that can be obtained from planet light curves, and the importance of transit duration. Exoplanets, she says, come in many different forms and sizes, and can be found using many different techniques. The essential challenge lies in recognizing each method’s individual time for success, in order to harness its maximum potential.

See: Exoplanet Detection: Techniques II, for the second half of this lecture.