I am curious as to what sorts of image processing and algorithms are used to analyze this data set. Anomaly detection in images? Classification of images based on known extrasolar planets?
So first of these are not images of stars, but spectra.
From these spectra you can extract quite a number of observables, such as radial velocity (how fast it is coming towards/moving away from us) in this case.
Since planets orbiting stars are not massless, both the star and the planets orbit a common center of mass, causing the star to periodically move toward/away from us (much more complicated of course with multiple planets, plane of the planets, oscillations in the star itself, etc.) - which we can measure.
To find exoplanets using this methods you need spectographs, which are very stable in the long-term (especially if you are interested in lower mass planets) and can measure radial velocities in the range of 1 m/s, such as HARPS [1].
Since planets orbiting stars are not massless, both the star and the planets orbit a common center of mass, causing the star to periodically move toward/away from us (much more complicated of course with multiple planets, plane of the planets, oscillations in the star itself, etc.) - which we can measure.
To find exoplanets using this methods you need spectographs, which are very stable in the long-term (especially if you are interested in lower mass planets) and can measure radial velocities in the range of 1 m/s, such as HARPS [1].
[1] http://www.eso.org/sci/facilities/lasilla/instruments/harps/...