eli5: How does Astronomers discover Planets and other space objects Billions of light years away?

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eli5: How does Astronomers discover Planets and other space objects Billions of light years away?

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They don’t in general directly observe the planet, but as they pass in front of the star (between the star and us) they block some of the light from the star, when this happens on a regular time pattern you can work out that it is an object (planet) passing in front of the star, the gravitational pull of a large planet as it orbits the star can also mean that the star “wobbles” slightly in the orbit. https://youtu.be/AnYye_c8rI4

Also it isn’t billions of light years away that is too far away.