要让这颗行星的状态从“候选”到“证实”，“开普勒”小组必须确认三次“行星凌日”的过程。
The Kepler team had to wait for three passes of the planet before upping its status from "candidate" to "confirmed".
用月亮来观察地球重新建立了外星行星凌日的基本几何学原理，同时平衡了穿过整个大气层的影响。
Using the Moon to view Earth recreates the basic geometry of exoplanet searches, as well as averaging the effect across the entire atmosphere.
观察太阳系外行星凌日的技术同Palle和他同事的技术近似，那就是利用月亮作为镜子看地球相对于太阳的凌日。
Looking for transiting extrasolar planets is analogous to palle and colleagues' technique - using the Moon as a mirror to watch Earth transit the Sun.
1677年11月，哈雷在南太平洋荒凉的圣赫勒拿岛上观测到了水星（最靠近太阳的行星）的凌日现象。
In November 1677, Halley observed a transit of the innermost planet, Mercury, from the desolate island of St Helena in the South Pacific.
但是这样的凌日现象已经为被证明可能是宇宙中最重要的突破之一的说法铺平了道路，这个说法即找到那些围绕其他恒星轨道公转的和地球大小相似的行星。
But such transits have paved the way for what might prove to be one of the most vital breakthroughs in the cosmos—detecting Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars.
可能由有较长轨道的行星引起的成百上千的闪光已被发现，但尚未证实是凌日。
Hundreds of flickers that might have been caused by planets with longer orbits have been seen, but have not yet been confirmed as transits.
装备了一架可以同时观测超过10万颗恒星的望远镜，开普勒搜寻着由行星的凌日现象所产生的微弱光线。
The craft, which is armed with a telescope that can track more than 100,000 stars simultaneously, looks for slight diminutions of light caused by planetary transits.
装备了一架可以同时观测超过10万颗恒星的望远镜，开普勒搜寻着由行星的凌日现象所产生的微弱光线。
The craft, which is armed with a telescope that can track more than 100, 000 stars simultaneously, looks for slight diminutions of light caused by planetary transits.
天文学家推断系外行星存在的手段有好几种，美国宇航局的开普勒项目使用的是凌日法。
While there are a number of different ways that astronomers infer the existence of exoplanets, NASA's Kepler mission USES what's known as the transit method.
这些凌日现象是小日全食，形成于当行星穿过其母星和开普勒之间的光线时。
These transits are mini eclipses-the passage of the planet in question through the line of sight between its parent star and Kepler's telescope.
相比以前所使用的一些根据恒星重力引起的震动来探测行星的方法，凌日探测法可以发现体积小很多的行星。
Transit detection can pick up much smaller planets than previous methods based on gravity-induced wobbles in the stellar parent.
“开普勒”小组首先根据凌日法获得地外行星的讯息，然后由开普勒望远镜和其他太空望远镜(包括运行在轨道上的和地球上的)对行星做进一步的观测，最后才将它确定为候选行星。
Kepler identifies these slight changes in starlight as candidate planets, which are then confirmed by further observations by Kepler and other telescopes in orbit and on Earth.
从地球看去，行星的凌日的情况约为百分之一。
Viewed from Earth, planets transit their stars only about 1% the time.
由于还没有发现任何恒星同时有行星和其卫星凌日，Kipping并没有把他的方法运用于实际。但是，NASA的开普勒号航空飞船会在将来发现一些这样的系统。
Kipping hasn't put his method into practice yet, since no star is known to have both a planet and moon that transit. However, NASA's Kepler spacecraft should discover several such systems.
这就是所谓的凌日行星。
但是艾姆斯研究中心的理论家杰克·利索尔称，如果没有可以观察的凌日现象，要想确定这些行星的轨道情况和质量就会难得多。
But Ames theorist Jack Lissauer says that if no transits are observable, it will be much harder to pin down the orbits and masses of these planets.
然而，由于行星之间的相互引力，它们确实会轻微地受到彼此的干扰，把相互之间的距离稍微拉近一点，这样就会在凌日的确切时间上引起微小的变化。
Still, the planets do slightly disturb each other with their mutual gravity, pulling each other around a little bit and thus causing tiny variations in the exact timing of the transits.
凌日是指行星(本次是金星)运行至太阳和地球之间，因此可以观测到太阳圆盘上有一个小黑点。
A transit occurs when a planet passes directly between the sun and the Earth; therefore the planet, in this case Venus, becomes visible and hence obscures a small portion of the solar disk.
事实上，凌日时间变化可以提供有关行星质量的信息。
In fact, such transit timing variations provide information on the masses of the planets.
事实上，凌日时间变化可以提供有关行星质量的信息。
In fact, such transit timing variations provide information on the masses of the planets.
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