Using the Kepler spacecraft, a team of astronomers, including members of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, discovered a new exoplanet with the longest annual cycle. The planet, dubbed Kepler-421b, takes a full turn around its native K-class star in only 704 days.
The discovery was made thanks to the analysis of the data collected by the Kepler telescope, which contained information about the section of space that the telescope had been tracking for four years. The discovery of the planet was made possible by observing the refraction of the light of the star, in front of which the exoplanet Kepler-421b passed. Due to the very long Kepler-421b orbital period, scientists were able to witness only two such passes.
“The discovery of Kepler-421b is pure luck,” points out David Kipping from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and lead author of the article describing the find in detail.
“After all, the further the planet is removed from its star, the less likely it is to be detected from Earth. This event requires incredible luck and the need, as they say, to be in the right place at the right time. ”
The discovered planet is located about 1000 light years from Earth. Its orbit is outside the permafrost boundary, that is, at a hypothetical demarcation point, where exoplanets change their appearance from rocky to snowy. Nevertheless, the open planet Keplar-421b maintains a very stable orbit beyond this boundary, and this fact may force scientists to reconsider some theories as to how the emerging young gas giants, who were also discovered by scientists in this star system, can behave.
Standard behavior patterns of cosmic bodies suggest that shortly after its formation, the gas giant will drift back to its native star, as, for example, happened to Jupiter in our Solar System. However, the discovery of a planet with an orbit lying outside the permafrost boundary may mean that this behavior is not always the norm, and that current theories should be reviewed and taken into account the possibility of the existence of such planets as Kepler-421b.
The surprisingly long orbital period of the planet Kepler-421b is explained by its remote location (177 million kilometers) from its star. The surface temperature of Kepler-421b is -57 degrees Celsius. Most of the planets discovered by the Kepler telescope are located much closer to their stars (which makes their annual cycle much more similar to our Earth cycle), and on their surface is much warmer.
The article is based on materials .
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