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Telescopes have been collecting copious amounts of data on exoplanets in recent years. One of the most common datasets tracks what are known as \u201ctransits,\u201d where an exoplanet crosses in front of its host star and dims the star\u2019s light slightly as it does so. The majority of exoplanets have been found this way, but other interesting details might be hidden in the data. For example, what would it mean if the transits happened in a way that disagreed with typical Newtonian physics? One answer to that question is that there might be an intelligent force behind the discrepancy \u2013 and that\u2019s what a group of researchers at Breakthrough Listen began looking for in a paper recently published on arXiv.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Technically, the researchers weren\u2019t looking simply at transits but at a data set called a \u201clightcurve.\u201d These graphs track an object\u2019s brightness over time \u2013 transits usually are identified by a noticeable dip in a star\u2019s lightcurve.<\/p>\n But how a star\u2019s lightcurve is affected by a planet could vary in several ways. For example, the path might vary somewhat across the star\u2019s surface or at a slower speed on a second pass. Anomalies like that keep astronomers awake all night \u2013 to do their job, of course.<\/p>\n \n