ELI5: How exactly are exoplanets, hundreds of light years away (like the K2-18b) discovered and studied?

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ELI5: How exactly are exoplanets, hundreds of light years away (like the K2-18b) discovered and studied?

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  1. tamtrible Avatar

    Basically, as I understand it, most of what we know about them comes from seeing tiny differences in the stars they’re orbiting. If the planet passes between us and the star, we can, with sufficiently sophisticated instruments, see it, essentially.