To find extra solar planets, CoRoT uses the method of transits detection.
The primary transit is the occultation of a fraction of the light from a star when a celestial object, such as a planet, passes between the star and the observer.
Its detection is made possible by the sensitivity of CCD to very small changes in light flux.
Corot is capable of detecting changes in brightness of about 1/10,000.
Scientists can thus hope finding planets with a size of approximately 2 times that of the Earth with this method, a class of planet called Super-Earth; detection of Corot-7b, whose radius is 1.7 times that of the Earth has shown that these predictions were correct.
CoRoT takes an exposure of 32 seconds duration, each 32 seconds, but the image is not fully transmitted to Earth because the data flow would be too large.
The onboard computer performs an important work of data reduction: the field around each target star, previously selected by the exoplanets team, is defined on a certain number of pixels described by a particular mask, the sum all pixels within the mask is then performed and several exposures are added (usually 16, which amounts to an integration time of about 8 minutes) before sending this information to the ground.
For some stars, considered particularly of interest, data of each exposure is transmitted every 32 seconds.
Such a sampling of 32s or 512s is well suited to the detection of a planetary transit that lasts from a little less than an hour to several hours.

A feature of this method is that it requires to detect at least three successive transits separated by two equal time intervals before one can consider a target as a serious candidate.
A planet of orbital period T should at least be observed for a time interval between 2T and 3T to have a chance to detect three transits.
The distance of the planet to the star ( which is characterized by a the semi-major axis of the elliptical orbit ) is linked to its orbital period by the second law of Kepler / Newton a³ = T² Mₛₜₐᵣ, using respectively as units for a, M and T: the distance from the Earth to the Sun (150 million km), the mass of the Sun, the orbital period of the Earth (1 year); this implies that if the observing time is less a year, for example, the orbits of the detectable planets will be significantly smaller than that of the Earth.

So, for CoRoT, due to the maximum duration of 6 months of observation for each star field, only planets closer to their stars than 0.3 Astronomic Units (less than the distance between the Sun and Mercury) can be detected, therefore generally not in the so-called habitable zone.
The Kepler mission (NASA) has continuously observed the same field for many years and thus had the ability to detect Earth sized planets located farther from their stars.

The moderate number of exoplanets discovered by CoRoT (34 during the 6 years of operation), is explained by the fact that a confirmation should absolutely be provided by ground-based telescopes, before any announcement is made.
Indeed, in the vast majority of cases, the detection of several transits does not mean the detection of a planet, but rather that of a binary star system, either one that corresponds to a grazing occultation of a star by the other, or that the system is close enough to a bright star (the CoRoT target) and the effect of transit is diluted by the light of this star; in both cases the decrease in brightness is low enough to be compatible with that of a planet passing in front of the stellar disk.
To eliminate these cases, one performs observations from the ground using two methods: radial velocity spectroscopy and imaging photometry with a CCD camera.
In the first case, the mass of the binary stars is immediately detected and in the second case one can expect to identify in the field the binary system near the target star responsible for the alert: the relative decline of brightness will be greater than the one seen by CoRoT which adds all the light in the mask defining the field of measurement.
In consequence, the CoRoT exoplanet science team has decided to p
To find extra solar planets, CoRoT uses the method of transits detection. The primary transit is the occultation of a fraction of the light from a star when a celestial object, such as a planet, passes between the star and the observer. Its detection is made possible by the sensitivity of CCD to very small changes in light flux. Corot is capable of detecting changes in brightness of about 1/10,000. Scientists can thus hope finding planets with a size of approximately 2 times that of the Earth with this method, a class of planet called Super-Earth; detection of Corot-7b, whose radius is 1.7 times that of the Earth has shown that these predictions were correct. CoRoT takes an exposure of 32 seconds duration, each 32 seconds, but the image is not fully transmitted to Earth because the data flow would be too large. The onboard computer performs an important work of data reduction: the field around each target star, previously selected by the exoplanets team, is defined on a certain number of pixels described by a particular mask, the sum all pixels within the mask is then performed and several exposures are added (usually 16, which amounts to an integration time of about 8 minutes) before sending this information to the ground. For some stars, considered particularly of interest, data of each exposure is transmitted every 32 seconds. Such a sampling of 32s or 512s is well suited to the detection of a planetary transit that lasts from a little less than an hour to several hours.
A feature of this method is that it requires to detect at least three successive transits separated by two equal time intervals before one can consider a target as a serious candidate. A planet of orbital period T should at least be observed for a time interval between 2T and 3T to have a chance to detect three transits. The distance of the planet to the star ( which is characterized by a the semi-major axis of the elliptical orbit ) is linked to its orbital period by the second law of Kepler / Newton a³ = T² Mₛₜₐᵣ, using respectively as units for a, M and T: the distance from the Earth to the Sun (150 million km), the mass of the Sun, the orbital period of the Earth (1 year); this implies that if the observing time is less a year, for example, the orbits of the detectable planets will be significantly smaller than that of the Earth.
So, for CoRoT, due to the maximum duration of 6 months of observation for each star field, only planets closer to their stars than 0.3 Astronomic Units (less than the distance between the Sun and Mercury) can be detected, therefore generally not in the so-called habitable zone. The Kepler mission (NASA) has continuously observed the same field for many years and thus had the ability to detect Earth sized planets located farther from their stars.
The moderate number of exoplanets discovered by CoRoT (34 during the 6 years of operation), is explained by the fact that a confirmation should absolutely be provided by ground-based telescopes, before any announcement is made. Indeed, in the vast majority of cases, the detection of several transits does not mean the detection of a planet, but rather that of a binary star system, either one that corresponds to a grazing occultation of a star by the other, or that the system is close enough to a bright star (the CoRoT target) and the effect of transit is diluted by the light of this star; in both cases the decrease in brightness is low enough to be compatible with that of a planet passing in front of the stellar disk. To eliminate these cases, one performs observations from the ground using two methods: radial velocity spectroscopy and imaging photometry with a CCD camera. In the first case, the mass of the binary stars is immediately detected and in the second case one can expect to identify in the field the binary system near the target star responsible for the alert: the relative decline of brightness will be greater than the one seen by CoRoT which adds all the light in the mask defining the field of measurement. In consequence, the CoRoT exoplanet science team has decided to p
CoRoT