How do scientists know so much about planets so far away?
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Exoplanets are observed with very good telescopes (Kepler is an orbital telescope especially made for this task)
We can check what kind of light this planet reflects to see what kind of elements are in the atmosphere. Size and distance to their star can be measured by checking how much light of their star they block when passing in front, or how much the star “wobbles” from it’s gravity.
We know a lot for a tiny fraction of the planets that are out there because they happen to be in well observable places. There are billions of planets we can’t see at all because their orbit is not aligned in a way they move in front of their star from our view.
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