Artist illustration of Kepler-88. Credit: Alexandre Santerne (CAUP)/ESO/Serge Brunier
Posted on 12/25/2013 3:20:34 PM PST by SunkenCiv
A team of European astronomers have confirmed the presence of an unseen but predicted exoplanet in a distant solar system designated Kepler-88.
The newly confirmed planet, Kepler-88c, had not been seen crossing in front of its parent star but its existence had been predicted because of the gravitational perturbation it caused on Kepler-88b, a planet which the Kepler space telescope had previously observed transiting the star.
The team used the SOPHIE (Spectrograph for Observation of Phenomena of Stellar Interiors and Exoplanets) spectrograph at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence to confirm the presence of Kepler-88c.
Over 3,500 planet candidates emerged from Kepler's constant gaze at over 150,000 stars, looking for dips in light that could indicate the presence of a transiting planet. So far nearly 200 of the planet candidates have been confirmed as planets after further investigation...
Transit timing variations can be used as a diagnostic of gravitational interactions between planets in a multi-planet system.
Predicting the existence of a planet from the orbits of those around was in fact used in our own Solar System. Neptune was discovered in 1846 after mathematical calculations demonstrated that anomalies in Uranus' orbit must be due to an unseen planet...
The TTV technique is sensitive enough to detect planets with the mass of Earth, and can therefore be used to discover the existence of non-transiting planets that affect the orbital motion of transiting planets.
In the case of Kepler-88, research led by David Nesvorny of the Southwest Research Institute predicted that Kepler-88 had two planets with the orbtial period of the outer planet being two times longer than the transiting inner planet. In our Solar System a similar configuration exists with Earth and Mars, with Mars taking almost two Earth years to orbit the Sun.
(Excerpt) Read more at sen.com ...
Artist illustration of Kepler-88. Credit: Alexandre Santerne (CAUP)/ESO/Serge Brunier
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Well, it's certainly hard to say one discovered something that had previously been seen.
;’) Its presence was detected by its influence on another exoplanet that had been discovered.
Could we send Liberals to the planet? Liberals are out of this world.
They’ve found an unseeable planet? What’s next? Are they going to actually find and produce a real, true moderate Democrat? A real, true moderate Islamist?
It’s K-Pax. Kevin Spacey said so.
BTTT
BTTT
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