Kepler finds 2 exoplanets crossing star

William Atkins
Friday, 27 August 2010 23:20

Science - Space

In a first for the astronomy community, NASA scientists working with the Kepler spacecraft have identified two planets transiting (crossing in front of) the same star. In other exiting news, astronomers were able to calculate changes to their orbits.

 

On the heels of the announcement by European astronomers about the largest planetary system yet found, the NASA announcement identifies the star as Kepler-9, and its two orbiting planets as Kepler-9b and Kepler-9c.

The iTWire article discussing the European discovery is titled 'Europeans may have found planet slightly larger than Earth.'

According to the August 26, 2010 NASA article NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Two Planets Transiting Same Star, 'The discovery incorporates seven months of observations of more than 156,000 stars as part of an ongoing search for Earth-sized planets outside our solar system.'

The work of these astronomers was published on Thursday, August 26, 2010, in the journal Science (doi: 10.1126/science.1195778).

It is entitled 'Kepler-9: A System of Multiple Planets Transiting a Sun-Like Star, Confirmed by Timing Variations.'

The number of authors of this discovery are much too many to state here, but they are associated with many prestigious universities, observatories, and laboratories (such as Fermilab, University of Texas-Austin, Lowell Observatory, CalTech, and Yale University) within the United States and one (Copenhagen University). in Denmark.

Page two continues with the specifics on this exoplanet discovery.