[ad_1]
April 16 (UPI) – Astronomers have identified a third exoplanet in orbit around the Kepler-47 binary star system. Kepler-47, with its three planets and two suns, is the only binary star system known to several planets.
Evidence that binary star systems can host multiple planets is important because binary stars are much more common than solo stars like the sun.
The new discovery was published this week in the Astronomical Journal.
Scientists had previously observed the transits of two planets surrounding the star duo in Kepler-47, but the transit signal of the third planet was weak, making it difficult to spot.
When researchers studied the new data collected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, they were able to isolate the attenuation caused by the orbital trajectory of the third exoplanet through the face of the binary stars.
"We had seen a third planet in 2012, but with a single transit, we needed more data," said in a statement the author of the study, Jerome Orosz, astronomer at San Diego State University. "With additional transit, the orbital period of the planet could be determined and we were then able to discover more transits that were hidden in the noise in the previous data."
Astronomers believe that the orbital plane of the newly discovered third planet, Kepler-47d, is more aligned with the Earth and its two suns, thus increasing the power of its transit signal.
Surprisingly, the new transit data suggest that the third exoplanet, which orbits around the two suns between the other two exoplanets, is the largest of the three, approximately between the sizes of Neptune and Saturn.
All the planets in the Kepler-47 system have surprisingly low densities, and neither the suns nor the planets are particularly hot. All members of the Kepler-47 system have an intimate orbit. Both suns are in orbit every 7.45 days and the entire system can be integrated into the Earth's orbit.
[ad_2]
Source link