How would the composition of a planet affect how much light it blocked of its star when passing in front? And signal to noise ratios are presumably quite easy to simulate. So not really sure what's so hard about it.
Composition determines density. A rocky planet would block less light than a gas giant planet of the same mass, because it would be denser and therefore smaller.
But does density have to do with anything Kepler measures?
Since it only measures how much light decreases, I assumed it's only measuring planet size, and that we're totally ignorant about planet mass and density?
captaincrowbar|7 years ago
gmjoe|7 years ago
Since it only measures how much light decreases, I assumed it's only measuring planet size, and that we're totally ignorant about planet mass and density?