Kepler Spacecraft Finds 2 Planets Sharing Same Orbit

Sat Mar 05, 2011 12:47 am » by **Mob 2,0**

To date, the telescope on the Kepler spacecraft has detected 1,235 planet candidates, and while Earth-bound telescopes are trying to determine if 54 of those planets may have conditions that could harbor life, one unique planetary system may have been uncovered.

Unique because it's the first time scientists have discovered what may be two planets sharing the same orbit of their home sun, New Scientist reports.

Since planets are so far away and smaller than their host stars, Kepler is only able to "see" the potential planets by measuring any decreases in the brightness of stars, which would be caused by planets passing in front of them.

If this dual-orbiting planet hypothesis gets confirmed, researchers suggest it would lend credence to a theory that our moon was created when a planet-sized object, sharing a similar orbit to Earth's eons ago, possibly crashed into our home world.

"Systems like this are not common, as this is the only one we have seen," said Jack Lissauer, a space scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

The double-planetary system, dubbed KOI-730, is described in greater detail by Lissauer and his colleagues in the Astrophysical Journal.

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"About one-third of the 1,200 transiting planet candidates detected in the first four months of Kepler data are members of multiple candidate systems," the scientists wrote.

"Several considerations strongly suggest that the vast majority of these multi-candidate systems are true planetary systems."

A big question scientists now wonder about the KOI-730 planets is whether they're headed for a runaway collision that could result in the formation of a moon.

But, in the galactic scheme of things, these two potential planets will most likely continue their cosmic close dance with each other for at least another 2 million years.
http://www.aolnews.com/2011/03/01/keple ... ame-orbit/

Sat Mar 05, 2011 1:21 am » by **Shaggietrip**

Very cool and very interesting. Thank you for posting.

:flop:

Sat Mar 05, 2011 2:07 am » by **Mob 2,0**

shaggietrip wrote:Very cool and very interesting. Thank you for posting.

any time shaggi :flop:

Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:01 am » by **Poe2you**

I dig these kinds of posts :flop:

Imagine the first two Earth type planets they find in this situation. Double bonus.

Sat Mar 05, 2011 4:59 pm » by **Bandanko**

taking all bets on a triple planet orbit! taking all bets here

cool post!

Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:12 pm » by **Richc**

poe2you wrote:I dig these kinds of posts

Imagine the first two Earth type planets they find in this situation. Double bonus.

Yeh imaging you could go into space just off the first planet, sit and wait for the second planet to come around then just land on it and again going back again... :flop:

Imagine having two planets to destroy. :lol:

RIK

Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:30 pm » by **Ghost32**

Excellent Post!

The question is... if there is life there, is it the same on both planets or did each planet evolve totally seperate and different to each other? What an amazing find!

Great Post!! :flop:

Sat Mar 05, 2011 5:37 pm » by **Richc**

ghost32 wrote:Excellent Post!

The question is... if there is life there, is it the same on both planets or did each planet evolve totally seperate and different to each other? What an amazing find!

Great Post!!

Interesting question. :think:

What would it say if there was life on both but different.?

And would both planets be at the same point in evolution.?

RIK