An Analogy Experiment for the Search for Exomoons

About This Paper

This contribution extends the classroom transit experiment to the next level: the detection of moons around exoplanets. When an exomoon is large enough, it produces a secondary dip — or a barycentric wobble in the transit timing — that can be separated from the planetary transit. The paper describes an analogy experiment in which a smaller secondary ball (the moon) orbits the Styrofoam planet ball, and the combined light curve is analysed in phyphox.

The article discusses both the physical conditions required for exomoon detection and the pedagogical value of the experiment for introducing students to the concept of indirect evidence in astronomy.

Published In

MNU-Journal, 76(3), pp. 223–227, 2023. ISSN 0025-5866. © Verlag Klaus Seeberger, Neuss.