Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-short-options-paper-shared-by-parts-a-and-b-of-the-physics-course-of-the-university-of-oxford/2019/s30/1/c/ii/solution

Limb darkening makes the central stellar surface brighter than the disk mean. A small planet at projected position blocks fractional flux approximately . A central transit is therefore deepest near mid-transit and rounded rather than flat-bottomed; a near-limb chord can be shallower. The geometrical contact times do not change for fixed radii and orbit, although a threshold-based measured duration can change because ingress and egress are fainter.

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