How Does an Exoplanet Atmosphere Leave Its Mark on Starlight?

How can a thin ring of gas around an unresolved planet leave a wavelength-dependent signal in its star's light?

Subtract out-of-transit and in-transit spectra, read transit depth in ppm, and test atmosphere, cloud, and host-star explanations.

A dark exoplanet crosses an orange star while a thin atmospheric ring filters a small band of starlight toward a distant telescope. — Vastward artistic reconstruction. The atmospheric ring is enlarged for clarity; the lesson experiment carries the quantitative meaning.

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