3d render of the Unreal Trappist-1 exoplanet system
Ketty
Astronomers have discovered many planets orbiting an even brighter star. Unchanged for a billion years, the six planets orbiting a Sun-like star lie between Earth and Neptune.
However, the strangest feature of the HD110067 star system is that the planets orbit in a very precise waltz. While the planet closest to the star makes three complete revolutions around it, the second makes exactly two at the same time. All six planets have a 3:2 or 4:3 vibration.
All planetary systems are thought to evolve this way, but a massive planet like Jupiter, a close encounter with a passing star, or a giant impact event leaves most people confused. Not so with HD110067.
Primitive planets
„We think that only one percent of all systems are in vibration,” University of Chicago’s Raphael Luk said in a press release. „This shows us the beautiful structure of a planetary system that has survived intact.”
That’s what makes HD110067 special, but it’s only one of three known six-planet resonance systems. HD110067 is a bright star with four or more planets. The study is published today in the journal Nature.
vibrational orbits
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) first discovered evidence of two planets orbiting HD110067 in 2020, and two more in 2022. However, the data was realized only after scientists realized that the planets’ orbits may be in oscillation.
That breakthrough came when ESA’s flagship ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) telescope — launched only in late 2019 — discovered a third planet, which proved to be the key to unlocking a chain of vibrational orbits that revealed the location of three more planets.
Six planets
The outermost planet of the three initially discovered planets takes 20.5 Earth days to orbit its star, the next star takes 1.5 times inward, which takes 13.6 Earth days, and the next takes 1.5 times in 9.1 Earth days. Once Cheops confirmed the existence of six planets, the authors calculated the orbits, which take 54 Earth days to complete one revolution far from its star.
Therefore, the inner planet completes six orbits for every orbit of the outer planet. „Cheops gave us this resonance configuration that allowed us to predict all the other periods,” Raphael said. „Without that detection from Cheops, it would have been impossible.”
The authors also calculated the mass and density of planets that appear to have large hydrogen-rich atmospheres suitable for study by the James Webb Space Telescope.
Discovering TOI-178 in January 2021, Cheops helped reveal the second planetary system in orbital vibrations.
Get to know Coma Berenice
The star system HD110067 is about 100 light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, a relatively faint L-shape of three stars to the naked eye. It is found between Boötes, the Big Dipper and the tail end of Leo.
The brightest star in Coma Berenices is the intermediate star Beta Comae Berenices, about 30 light-years from the Solar System. Sweep a telescope across it, and you’ll see 20 bright stars and several faint stars that are part of an open cluster called the Coma Star Cluster, or Melod 111. That open star cluster is about 288 light-years away. It is one of the closest star clusters to our solar system.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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