Xallarap Effect (Animation) (VIDEO)
Caption
Animation depicting the xallarap effect. As a planet moves around its host star, it exerts a tiny gravitational tug that shifts the star's position a bit. This can pull the distant star closer and farther from a perfect alignment. Since the nearer star acts as a natural lens, it's like the distant star's light will be pulled slightly in and out of focus by the orbiting planet. By picking out little shudders in the starlight, astronomers will be able to infer the presence of planets. Xallarap is parallax spelled backward. Parallax relies on motion of the observer - Earth moving around the Sun - to produce a change in the alignment between the distant source star, the closer lens star and the observer. Xallarap works the opposite way, modifying the alignment due to the motion of the source. While microlensing is generally best suited to finding worlds farther from their star than Venus is from the Sun, the xallarap effect works best with very massive planets in small orbits, since they make their host star move the most. Revealing more distant planets will also allow us to probe a different population of worlds. Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0d5s-p-gaWw Download in HD: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/13795
Credit
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
Usage Restrictions
None
License
Licensed content