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Astronomers have discovered a planet three times more massive than Jupiter in a star system located about 1,250 light-years away from ours.
The distant world, known as Kepler-88d, is the most massive in the star system, containing two other planets, according to a study published in The astronomical diary. It orbits its star every four years on an elliptical, or egg-shaped, path.
A team of scientists led by the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Hawaii discovered the planet after six years of observations with the W. M. Keck Observatory, located on the dormant Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii.
Their latest discovery sheds new light on the Kepler-88 system, which was already known to astronomers for its intriguing features. The two planets that orbit closest to the star, known as Kepler-88 b and c, have a peculiar orbital relationship known as “motion resonance.”
For example, Kepler-88 b — the innermost planet the size of Neptune — orbits around the star in just 11 days, while the orbital period of the second planet Kepler-88 c, which has approximately the same mass as Jupiter, is almost exactly double at 22 days.
This means that for every two orbits Kepler-88 b completes, Kepler-88 c, which is twenty times more massive, will complete one. This resonance of motion greatly increases the gravitational influence that each of the worlds has on the other.
The rhythmic symmetry is energy efficient, with planet b receiving a “push” for every two orbits it completes, just like a child pushed on a swing. Because 88 is much larger, its gravity has a significant influence on the orbital time of 88 b.
“We say such synchronized pairs of orbits are orbital resonances,” wrote Richard Pogge, an astronomer at Ohio State University, who was not involved in the study, in an educational fact sheet. “The analogy is to consider a child on a swing pushing another person.”
“If the child’s thrusts occur at random times, sometimes pushing with his swing and raising them, other times pushing them against his swing and reducing them, the average decreases and the swing does not change much. However, if the thrusts are all synchronized to the perfection for you to push the child with his swing every time, the phase thrusts accumulate and the child’s swing is amplified, “he said.
In our own solar system, Jupiter has a great influence on the other planets and objects due to its large mass. For example, the gas giant’s gravitational influence is believed to be responsible for the small size of Mars, the presence of the asteroid belt, and other characteristics of our solar system.
Hawaii astronomers believe that Kepler-88 d may have had a similar influence on its own star system.
“At three times the mass of Jupiter, Kepler-88 d has probably been even more influential in the history of the Kepler-88 system than the so-called King, Kepler-88 c, which is just a mass of Jupiter,” Lauren Weiss said The lead author of the latest UH IfA study in a statement. “So perhaps Kepler-88 d is the new supreme monarch of this planetary empire: the empress.”
Earlier this month, another team of researchers announced the discovery of a Remarkable six-planet system containing planets in an almost perfect rhythm that also shows resonance of motion.
According to a study published in the magazine Astronomy and Astrophysics, tThe six planets are close to the so-called “3: 2 resonance”. This means that as the innermost planet completes three orbits, the second completes approximately two, with this pattern repeated for all subsequent planets.
Correction 4/30/20, 10:14 a.m. ET: This article has been updated to remove incorrect information indicating that the mass of Kepler-88 d is 300 times that of Earth. We regret the error.
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