Posted: Wed, May 15, 2013, 6:32 AM ET (1032 GMT)
Astronomers reported this week the discovery of an extrasolar planet using a new approach that makes use in part of the theory of relativity. The method makes use of a "beaming" effect that makes a star brighten and dim as it is tugged by the gravity of an orbiting planet; the effect is created by photons "piling up" in energy as the star moves in the direction of the observer. Other small effects include changes in brightness of the star as it is stretched by the planet's gravity, and light reflected from the planet itself. Astronomers used the technique to identify a potential planet in data from NASA's Kepler mission, and the discovery was confirmed by other observations using the more conventional radial velocity technique. The planet in question, Kepler-76b, is twice as massive as Jupiter and orbits its star every 1.5 days.
