Astronomers find ‘tilted’ planets even in pristine solar systems
Understanding that even planets in pristine solar systems have some orbital tilt puts Earth’s solar system into a larger perspective, researchers say. (more…)
Understanding that even planets in pristine solar systems have some orbital tilt puts Earth’s solar system into a larger perspective, researchers say. (more…)
More than three-quarters of the planet candidates discovered by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft have sizes ranging from that of Earth to that of Neptune, which is nearly four times as big as Earth. Such planets dominate the galactic census but are not represented in our own solar system. Astronomers don’t know how they form or if they are made of rock, water or gas.
The Kepler team today reports on four years of ground-based follow-up observations targeting Kepler’s exoplanet systems at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington. These observations confirm the numerous Kepler discoveries are indeed planets and yield mass measurements of these enigmatic worlds that vary between Earth and Neptune in size. (more…)