2023-11-02 18:45:58
Artist’s concept showing two of the seven planets discovered orbiting a Sun-like star. The system, called Kepler-385, was identified using data from NASA’s Kepler mission. -NASA/DANIEL RUTTER
MADRID, 2 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
A review of archival data from NASA’s now-retired Kepler space telescope has revealed a system of seven planets scorched by their star, located 4,676 light years away.
Additionally, unlike any of our immediate neighbor planets, the seven planets in this system, called Kepler-385, are larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune. It is one of the few planetary systems known to contain more than six verified planets or planet candidates..
The Kepler-385 system is among the highlights of a new Kepler catalog containing nearly 4,400 candidate planets, including more than 700 multiplanetary systems.
At the center of the Kepler-385 system is a Sun-like star about 10% larger and 5% hotter than the Sun. The two inner planets, both slightly larger than Earth, are probably rocky and may have atmospheres thin The other five planets are larger (each with a radius about twice that of Earth) and are expected to be enveloped in thick atmospheres, NASA reports.
The ability to describe the properties of the Kepler-385 system in such detail is a testament to the quality of this latest exoplanet catalog. While the final catalogs of the Kepler mission focused on producing lists optimized to measure how common planets are around other stars, this study focuses on producing a complete list that provides accurate information about each of them, making possible discoveries like Kepler-385.
The new catalog uses improved measurements of stellar properties and more accurately calculates the trajectory of each planet transiting through its host star. This combination illustrates that when a star hosts several transiting planets, They typically have more circular orbits than when a star hosts only one or two.
Kepler’s primary observations ceased in 2013 and were followed by the telescope’s extended mission, called K2, which continued until 2018. The data Kepler collected continues to reveal new discoveries about our galaxy.
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