Animation of a super_Earth exoplanet transiting its star. A super_Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than the Earth磗, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System磗 gas giants. The term does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability. One method for finding alien planets is to detect the small drop in starlight caused by a planet passing in front of transiting its parent star as seen from Earth. Several existing planet_hunting project use this method.