L
lohtse101
Guest
In the search for exoplanets, the size of what we've found, especially the "hot gas giants" that are close to their primaries, makes me wonder if moons have been taken into consideration for the wobble method (if it's even possible). It seems to me that a planet with 10 Earth masses, for instance, would have the same general effect (at our level of ability to resolve the detail) as an 8 Earth-mass planet with a 2 Earth-mass moon when looking at the wobble of a star.<br /><br />The presence of significant lunar masses may also impact the findings of a "transit" method in that the net drop of visual energy would be the same for a planet and moon as it would be for just a single large planet with the same diameter as the a planet and moon put together. However, in this case, I would assume that there should be some sort of variance thrown into the equation by the fact that the moon(s) are not only transiting the primary with the planet but also transiting the planet itself (e.g. a dimming and brightening cycle as the planet crosses the face of the star). However, differentiating that in the short amount of time we have during a transit would be pretty difficult, I'd imagine.<br /><br />Of course, as I think of this, I'd have to wonder if moons would truly be an impact when looking at something that is evidently multiple earth masses. Yet, I still find it interesting to consider that Gliese 581 C, at 5 times more massive than Earth, could possibly be, say, four times more massive than Earth but with a moon that is equal to 1 Earth mass...