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abstract: 'Here we describe a story behind the discovery of Kepler-46, which was the first exoplanetary system detected and characterized from a method known as the transit timing variations (TTVs). The TTV method relies on the gravitational interaction between planets orbiting the same star. If transits of at least one of the planets are detected, precise measurements of its transit times can be used, at least in principle, to detect and characterize other non-transiting planets in the system. Kepler-46 was the first case for which this method was shown to work in practice. Other detections and characterizations followed (e.g., Kepler-88). The TTV method plays an important role in addressing the incompleteness of planetary systems detected from transits.'
author:
- David Nesvorný
title: How to Find a Planet from Transit Variations
---

My background is in dynamical astronomy. This is a branch of astronomy that is concerned with the motion of planets, stars and galaxies. Somehow, something clicked while I was attending lectures about dynamical astronomy as an undergraduate at the Charles University in Prague. I remember really enjoying the mathematical methods that we were asked to master. In other astronomy courses, we learned key equations with many variables. Their 