Transit Distances (IMAGE)
Caption
One of the main objectives of the Gaia mission is to establish the currently uncertain distance from Earth to various stars using high-precision triangulation, which would allow a much better understanding of the properties of the stars and the planets orbiting them. Of the 1,163 confirmed transiting planets, which pass directly in front of their stars as seen from Earth, there are 644 distinct host stars; less than 200 have accurately known distances from Earth. This image shows the distances from Earth (center) to the stars (black dots) of transiting exoplanets. The inner dashed circle has a radius of 100 parsecs (about 326 light years) with the middle and outer circles corresponding to 500 parsecs (1,630 light years) and 1,000 parsecs (3,260 light years), respectively. The cluster of points to the lower right represents the transiting planets discovered by NASA's Kepler satellite. For each star, the straight lines extending from the circle indicate the current uncertainty of its distance from Earth.
Credit
Image by Michael Perryman
Usage Restrictions
Image by Michael Perryman
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