An international research team led by scientists from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the discovery of 7 super-hot planets, each larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune, and about 5,000 light-years away from Earth.
Planet Hunter
The rare star system was discovered during a series of inventories of data from NASA’s retired Kepler space telescope, according to a study published in the Journal of Planetary Science.
Kepler was launched in 2009 with one goal: to find Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. After nine and a half years of operation, the telescope’s control system ran out of fuel, and NASA announced its retirement in October 2018. Meanwhile, Kepler observed 530,506 stars and discovered more than 2,500 planets.
Kepler observes the planets by observing the light emitted from the stars for a short time. If this light dims and then rises again, this is a sign that a planet has passed in front of the star. To understand this concept, for example, imagine that you are holding a small metal ball half a centimeter in diameter between your fingers. With arms outstretched, you passed this ball in front of the large lamp at the top of the room. The light of the lamp dimmed as the ball passed in front of it.
The same thing happens with Kepler, when a planet passes in front of a star, the star’s light dims slightly, and as a result, the magnitude, duration, and frequency of the dimming are a function of the planet’s orbit, diameter, and sometimes the composition of its atmosphere.
Wonderful worlds
According to the new study, the seven-planet orbiting star known as Kepler 385 is a Sun-like star, but 10% larger and 5% hotter than the Sun.
The two inner planets in this star system are likely to be rocky like Earth and have thin atmospheres, while the other five planets (the larger ones) are expected to be surrounded by dense atmospheres, according to an official press release. By NASA.
In general, these planets are very close to their star, as the closest one makes a complete revolution around its star in about three and a half days, and the farthest ones make a complete revolution around its star in about 86 days. , slightly less than Mercury’s revolution around the Sun.
The largest of these planets is Kepler 385d, which has a radius two and a half times that of Earth and is the sixth closest to the star. The star and its radius is only 1.2 times the diameter of the Earth.
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