SPOTTED BY A RADIO TELESCOPE

TVLM 513b DISCOVERED: DETECTION METHOD: 2020

ASTROMETRY

Astrometry is one of the trickiest methods used to find exoplanets, involving very precise measurements of the position of a star to detect the tiny wobble caused by an orbiting planet. It’s normally done using optical telescopes, but in 2020 the first astrometric detection via radio astronomy was made. This used a continentwide network of radio telescopes stretching between Hawaii and Puerto Rico to detect a Saturn-sized planet orbiting around an ultracool dwarf star. Researchers used the measured wobble to establish that the planet has an orbital period of approximately 221 days.

Researchers were able to infer the orbit from the data