Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Tilt-A-Whirl! A Tale Of Strange Planetary Orbits In Kepler-56

Tilt-A-Whirl! A Tale Of Strange Planetary Orbits In Kepler-56:
Artist's conception of Kepler-56, which has two planets orbiting at a tilt to their star despite the fact that scientists found no bigger gas giant planet to alter their orbits. Credit: Daniel Huber/NASA's Ames Research Center.
Artist’s conception of Kepler-56, which has two planets orbiting at a tilt to their star despite the fact that scientists found no “hot Jupiter” to alter their orbits. Credit: Daniel Huber/NASA’s Ames Research Center.
A faraway group of planets is puzzling scientists. Newly reported Kepler-56′s system has three planets — two smaller ones close by, and a much larger one further out. The inner planets are orbiting at a tilt to the equator of the host star.
Scientists have seen that tilt before in other systems, but they thought you would need a “hot Jupiter” — a huge gas giant planet close to the star — to make that happen. Here, that’s not the case. The outer planet’s gravity, distant as it is, is pulling the two planets into their tilted orbits.
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Read the rest of Tilt-A-Whirl! A Tale Of Strange Planetary Orbits In Kepler-56 (82 words)

© Elizabeth Howell for Universe Today, 2013. |Permalink |No comment |
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