KENNESAW, Ga., Oct. 7 -- Kennesaw State University issued the following news release:
Tran, who is originally from Vietnam, is studying observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. The satellite monitors stars and looks for repeated dips in brightness that may occur when a planet passes in front of one.
"When an object goes in front of the star, it blocks a little bit of the light and causes a dip in the brightness that we observe," Tran said. "If that dip repeats over and over, there might be a planet orbiting that star."
The challenge is that binary star systems can produce similar signals. When two stars orbit one another and one passes in front of the other, the change in brightness can resemble the patter...