What geometric constraint causes the transit method to inherently fail to detect some exoplanetary systems?
Answer
The planet's orbital plane is significantly tilted away from our line of sight
The transit method relies entirely on geometry: the orbiting planet must pass directly between the host star and the observing telescope on Earth. If the planet's orbital plane is tilted, even slightly, away from this necessary alignment relative to our line of sight, the planet will never appear to cross the stellar disk from our perspective. This geometrical requirement means that the transit technique can only sample those systems whose orbital planes happen to intersect our specific observational window, rendering the method blind to systems orbiting on different planes, irrespective of the planet's size or proximity to its star.
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