Question

One way to search for planets around other stars is the doppler technique. another way uses transits of planets around other stars. how does the transit technique work?

Answer 1

The transit method requires watching the light output of a star over long periods of time. A transit occurs when the planet crosses in front of its star from earths point of view. Since there is a small object (the planet) now blocking some of the star, it appears to dim a little bit for a while until the planet passes. If we are in a position where that occurs regularly (most paths of planets do not happen to be on the line of sight between earth and their star) we can deduce the period of orbit. From the amount of dimming and the period you can estimate the mass