Another milestone
Posted by Sane Spirit on Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Under: In the News
The Kepler Space Telescope has notched another milestone discovery: double planets circling double stars in the constellation Cygnus, some 5,000 light-years away. It's the first time multiple planets have been found in a binary star system.
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The new system, named Kepler-47, has one sunlike star and a companion about a third its size. The two planets—one three times bigger than Earth and the other slightly larger than Uranus—orbit around both stars in what is likely a delicate dance.
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The new study, published this week in the journal Science, found that Kepler-47's larger, outer planet lies in the much scrutinized "habitable zone," where temperatures are just right for the presence of liquid water on a rocky surface. Its orbit is an unusually long 303 days, similar to Earth's.
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The majority of stars in the Milky Way are, in fact, binaries. "Single stars like the sun are the exception," said study leader Jerome Orosz, an astronomer at San Diego State University.
"The fact you can have planets at binary stars is important because you've just opened up a whole new landscape to look at."
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n just under a year, the Kepler mission has discovered all six planets now known to revolve around a pair of stars. The telescope is aimed at a field in the Milky Way containing about 4.5 million stars. This spring NASA extended its planet-hunting mission by four years.
Double Planets Found Orbiting Twin Stars
[,,,]
The new system, named Kepler-47, has one sunlike star and a companion about a third its size. The two planets—one three times bigger than Earth and the other slightly larger than Uranus—orbit around both stars in what is likely a delicate dance.
[,,,]
The new study, published this week in the journal Science, found that Kepler-47's larger, outer planet lies in the much scrutinized "habitable zone," where temperatures are just right for the presence of liquid water on a rocky surface. Its orbit is an unusually long 303 days, similar to Earth's.
[,,,]
The majority of stars in the Milky Way are, in fact, binaries. "Single stars like the sun are the exception," said study leader Jerome Orosz, an astronomer at San Diego State University.
"The fact you can have planets at binary stars is important because you've just opened up a whole new landscape to look at."
[,,,]
n just under a year, the Kepler mission has discovered all six planets now known to revolve around a pair of stars. The telescope is aimed at a field in the Milky Way containing about 4.5 million stars. This spring NASA extended its planet-hunting mission by four years.
Double Planets Found Orbiting Twin Stars
In : In the News