The effect of unknown planets on mass estimates

Abstract

The planet causes the star to wobble which causes it’s light to become blueshifted and redshifted. These shifts give us the orbital period and the radial velocity of the star. The orbital period of the planet and the star’s radial velocity give us the mass of the planet. Transit depth is the amount of light blocked from a star as a planet passes in front of it which gives us the planet’s size. If there are multiple planets in a system then the transits won’t occur at regular intervals. The variations in the transit times are used to find the mass of the planet.