Detection of exoplanets by means of the Bump Detection Method

The detection of exoplanets can be accomplished by using the Bump Detection Method, which uses many statistical hypotheses tests simultaneously in order to determine whether or not a potential exoplanet is present, visible as a bump in a data set. In order to draw reliable conclusions from the hypotheses tests it is important that the Type I error is controlled. This can be done by determining a suitable significance level for the hypothesis tests. Simulation tests have shown that it is best to choose a significance level between 0.005 and 0.01, such that reliable results follow concerning the detection of exoplanets. These values have been used for tests with data from the NASA Kepler mission, which - after comparison with physical results - lead to the conclusion that it is possible to detect exoplanets using the Bump Detection Method.