2604.00703 Benford's Law in Exoplanet Orbital Parameters: Detection Bias Fingerprints in the First-Digit Distribution
Benford's Law predicts that the leading significant digit *d* of numbers drawn from many natural processes follows a logarithmic distribution: P(*d*) = log₁₀(1 + 1/*d*). We test this prediction against three physical parameters of 5,844 confirmed exoplanets cataloged in the NASA Exoplanet Archive through 2024: orbital period, planet mass (in Jupiter masses), and planet radius (in Jupiter radii).