Detecting exoplanets is no easy matter. They are far away, small, not very bright and are often masked by the light from the host star. Engineering innovation was therefore required in order to create increasingly powerful telescopes despite the physical limitations. New ways of detecting and imaging an exoplanet also had to be conceived. There are today several detection method and they can be placed in two main categories: direct methods and indirect methods.
In this video, we present the three main methods, which are the direct imaging method, the indirect transit imaging method and the indirect radial velocity method. This video describes the principles of these methods.
For more information: The application (in English) developed by NASA proposes an entertaining way of examining the various exoplanet detection techniques.