ConceptsTransit photometry
Concept · astronomy · in 3 mysteries
Transit photometry
Finding and measuring things that pass in front of a star by the dip in its light.
1I/'OumuamuaA planet crossing its star's face blocks a small, regular fraction of the light; a telescope measuring the star's brightness over months sees the dips. Kepler and TESS found thousands of planets this way. Tabby's star and HD 139139 are on this site because their dips do not behave: irregular, too deep, or not repeating, which the usual causes do not produce.
Where it comes up
HD 139139, the "Random Transiter"
Finds transit-like dips of 0.75–8 hours in a light curve, measures how many K2-like dips the data could have caught, and calibrates false alarms on the same data.
Single-event dip search with injection-recovery and fair nullsTen known dippers diluted by a factor of 15 do not resemble this light curve.The dips were first seen in the Kepler pipeline light curve and analysed in the independent K2SFF reduction.TESS Sector 91 full-frame-image light curves at the position of HD 139139 (2025)K2 Campaign 15 light curves of EPIC 249706694 (pipeline, K2SFF and EVEREST)
Tabby's star (KIC 8462852)
Joins DR7's per-exposure colour term to a star's light curve, classes plates by DASCH's colour-term bands, and asks whether a long-term offset survives on good-blue plates alone and whether residuals track the colour…
Colour-term stratification of a DASCH DR7 long-term offsetObserver-offset ensemble reduction of the AAVSO recordSliding-box dip search with injection-recovery for TESS light curvesMatched-comparison century-slope test for DASCH light curvesASAS-SN image-subtraction reconciliation: fade slopes, catalogue comparison, camera tie-in and depression checkNo known or proposed stellar phenomenon explains all aspects of the light curve.
Methods that use it 6
Single-event dip search with injection-recovery and fair nulls
MTHHD 139139, the "Random Transiter"
Colour-term stratification of a DASCH DR7 long-term offset
MTHTabby's star (KIC 8462852)
Observer-offset ensemble reduction of the AAVSO record
MTHTabby's star (KIC 8462852)
Sliding-box dip search with injection-recovery for TESS light curves
MTHTabby's star (KIC 8462852)
Matched-comparison century-slope test for DASCH light curves
MTHTabby's star (KIC 8462852)
MTH
Cite it
Mysteries Department. (2026). Transit photometry [Concept CPT0DECW02PHXR7]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW02PHXR7
@misc{mysteriesdept_cpt0decw02phxr7,
title = {Transit photometry},
author = {{Mysteries Department}},
year = {2026},
note = {Concept, catalog key CPT0DECW02PHXR7},
url = {https://mysteriesdept.com/r/CPT0DECW02PHXR7}
}