Illustration of a planet passing in front of the star. Star has flares and unoccupied star spots. Why does any of this matter for transit spectroscopy? The transit light source effect - Transmission spectroscopy assumes an e out-of-transit, disk-integrated spectrum of the host star can be subtracted to isolate the spectrum of the planet Any difference between the spectrum of the transit chord and the rest of the star leads to contamination, including: 1) occulted starspots 2) unocculted starspots 3) time variability such as flares
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