Kepler-223’s planets also are in resonance tagged posts

The University of Chicago’s Sean Mills (left) and Daniel Fabrycky describe the complex orbital structure of the Kepler-223 expolanetary system in the May 11, 2016 Advance Online edition of Nature. Credit: Nancy Wong

The 4 planets of Kepler-223 star system seem to have little in common with planets of Earth’s own solar system. And yet a new study shows Kepler-223 system is trapped in an orbital configuration that Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune may have broken from in the early history of the solar system. “Exactly how and where planets form is an outstanding question in planetary science,” said Sean Mills. “Our work essentially tests a model for planet formation for a type of planet we don’t have in our solar system...