Reanalysis of Kepler data uncovers two planets in KOI-134 system with unusual orbital dynamics

A new investigation into Kepler’s old data has revealed that a planetary system has thought of the zero planet house has in fact two planets that orbit their star in a unique style, like an old -fashioned ride.

The Koi-134 system contains two planets which orbit their star in particular on two different orbital levels, with a planet with a significant variation in transit times. This is the foreground system discovered of this type.

More than a decade ago, scientists used the NASA Kepler space telescope to observe the Koi-134 system and thought he could have an orbit planet, but they judged that this candidate planet was a false positive, because its transits (or the passes in front of its star) were not aligned as expected. These transits were so abnormal that the planet was really eliminated by an automated system as a false positive before being able to be analyzed.

However, NASA’s commitment to openly share scientific data means that researchers can constantly review old observations to make new discoveries. In a new study, the researchers reanalyzed this Kepler data on Koi-134 and confirmed that not only is “false positive” is in fact a real planet, but the system has two planets and an interesting orbital dynamic.

The team of scientists led by Emma Nabbie of the University of Southern Queensland published an article on their discovery in Natural astronomy. The work is entitled “a low-mutual inclination system around the Koi-134 revealed by the variations in transit synchronization”.

First, the planet “false positive”, called Koi-134 B, was confirmed as a hot Jupiter (a hot planet of a size similar to Jupiter). Thanks to this analysis, the researchers discovered that the reason why this planet has escaped confirmation previously is because it experiences what we call variations in transit synchronization (TTV), or small differences in the transit of a planet through its star which can make its “early” or “late” transit because the planet is pushed or pulled by the gravity of another planet the study.

Researchers believe that Koi-134 B transit through its star up to 8 pm “late” or “early”, which is a significant variation. In fact, it was so important that this is why the planet was not confirmed in initial observations.

As these TTVs are caused by gravitational interaction with another planet, this discovery also revealed a planetary brother: Koi-134 tsp. By studying this system in simulations which include these TTVs, the team found that Koi-134 C is a slightly smaller than Saturn planet and closer to its star than Koi-134 b.

Koi-134 C previously escaped observation because it orbit on an inclined orbital plan, a different plan from Koi-134 B, and this inclined orbit prevents the planet from transitting its star. The two orbital plans of these planets are around 15 degrees different from each other, also known as a mutual inclination of 15 degrees, which is significant. Due to the gravitational push and the traction between these two planets, their orbital plans also bow in both directions.

Another interesting characteristic of this planetary system is something called resonance. These two planets have a resonance of 2 to 1, which means at the same time that a planet completes an orbit, the other completes two orbits. In this case, Koi-134 B has an orbital period (the time it takes a planet to finish an orbit) of around 67 days, which is double the orbital period of Koi-134 C, which orbit every 33 to 34 days.

Between the separate orbital plans tilting back and forth, the TTV and the resonance, the two planets orbit their star in a pattern that looks like two wooden ponies that swing from top to bottom while they turn on a happy old -fashioned tower.

Although this system has started as a false positive with Kepler, this reanalysis of data reveals a dynamic system with two planets. In fact, it is the very first compact and multiplanetary compact system which is not flat, has such an important TTV and has tilted orbital plans.

In addition, most planetary systems do not have high mutual inclinations between nearby planets. In addition to being a rarity, mutual inclinations like this are not often measured due to the challenges in the observation process. Thus, having measures like this of a significant mutual inclination in a system, as well as resonance and TTV measures, provides a clear image of the dynamics in a planetary system that we are not always able to see.

The observations described in the document and used in the simulations for the document were made by the Kepler space telescope of NASA and the document included the collaboration and the contributions of institutions such as the University of Geneva, the University of Laguna, the Mountain Purple observatory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Georgia Kepler Space The University of Southern and NASA and NASA Keorgia Kepler Space Télescope.