Astronomers have discovered a new star system with six planets
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Astronomers have discovered a rare family of six planets located approximately 100 light years from Earth.
The discovery could help scientists unravel the mysteries of planet formation, according to a study published in the journal Nature, CNN writes.
According to astronomers, six exoplanets orbit a bright Sun-like star called HD110067, which is located in the constellation Coma Berenice.
These planets are larger than Earth, but smaller than Neptune. They revolve around the star in a “celestial dance” called “orbital resonance”.
| The planets revolve around the star in a “celestial dance” called “orbital resonance” |
The researchers labeled them b to g. For every six revolutions completed by planet b, closest to the star, the farthest planet g completes one. While planet c makes three revolutions around the star, planet d makes two, and when planet e makes four revolutions, planet f makes three.
This harmonious rhythm, the researchers say, creates a resonant chain where all six planets align every few orbits.
According to The Wall Street Journal, University of Chicago astrophysicist and lead author of the study Raphael Luque notes that the fact that HD 110067’s planets are still in resonance suggests that the system has remained unchanged for billions of years, and this may provide clues about what conditions allowed this stability to be maintained.
According to him, “parent” stars and their planets are born simultaneously from a cloud of gas and cosmic dust that flattens into a disk shape.
Most of the gas enters the center, where the star is formed, and on the outskirts of the disk, young planets are formed from dust. These planets are in resonance, helping to maintain the gravitational stability of the system.
Researchers first noticed the new star system in 2020, when a NASA satellite detected dips in the brightness of HD110067.
According to them, HD110067, whose mass is 80% of the mass of our Sun, is the brightest known star. Some of its planets have hydrogen-rich atmospheres, making them ideal objects for study by the Webb Space Telescope.
“HD110067’s planets appear to have low masses, suggesting they may be rich in gas or water. Future observations will be able to determine whether the planets have rocky or water-rich internal structures“, says the co-author of the study, a doctoral student in astrophysics at the University of Bern in Switzerland, Jo Ann Egger.
Read also: “Astronomers discovered the most distant and oldest black hole”
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