Astronomers are stepping up their attempts to unravel the mysteries of exoplanets.
While 51 Pegasi b was found through the movement of a star, most exoplanets found since were detected in the glow of one. When a distant planet orbits in front of its star, it blocks a smidge of starlight, making the star appear temporarily fainter to us on Earth. When astronomers watch the star long enough, making note of the dimmed starlight, they can confirm not only the existence of a planet but also how long that world takes to orbit its sun, the composition of its atmosphere, and the temperature of its surface.

These are the exoplanet basics that are usually quite straightforward to discern. But the light of other suns contains a lot more information that we’re only starting to understand. One astronomer, for example, has examined how much starlight exoplanets reflect to investigate what their surfaces might be made of; ice, for example, is more reflective than water, and water is more reflective than dirt. One of the most intriguing approaches that I’ve recently come across puts a twist on the traditional method of finding exoplanets within the dips of starlight. “We know that rocky planets are going to have bumpy features, and if the planet is rotating in front of the star, those features come in and out of view and block more of the star’s light,” explains Moiya McTier, an astrophysicist who has studied exoplanets. Those tiny shifts could suggest the presence of mountains, volcanoes, and other towering terrain.

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