Astronomers discover new planet orbiting two stars
10-Aug-2015
Astronomers discover new planet orbiting two stars
Researchers find new 'circumbinary' planet, the 10th detected by NASA's Kepler Mission.
San Francisco State University
A team of astronomers including a San Francisco State University researcher has discovered a new planet orbiting a pair of stars, the 10th "circumbinary" planet discovered by NASA's Kepler Mission and a milestone for the 6-year-old spacecraft.
The planet, known as Kepler-453b, is located within its host stars' "habitable zone," the area around the stars in which life could potentially exist. And the somewhat fortuitous nature of its discovery indicate there could be more like it than previously believed, according to Stephen Kane, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at San Francisco State University and member of the team that made the discovery.
"If we had observed this planet earlier or later than we did, we would have seen nothing and assumed there was no planet there," Kane said. "That suggests that there are a lot more of these kinds of planets than we are thinking, and we're just looking at the wrong time."
The discovery is detailed in an article accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal and will be announced by San Diego State University Professor William Welsh on Friday at the International Astronomical Union meeting in Honolulu.
More:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-08/sfsu-adn081015.php
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