transit method tagged posts

Citizen Scientists help Discover Record-Breaking Exoplanet in Binary Star System

Citizen scientists help discover record-breaking exoplanet in binary star system
An artist’s interpretation of TOI 4633 c, a Neptune-like exoplanet found orbiting the habitable zone of a sunlike star. The system contains a second star (right) and may also host another exoplanet (left). Credit: Ed Bell for the Simons Foundation

A team of astronomers and citizen scientists has discovered a planet in the habitable zone of an unusual star system, including two stars and potentially another exoplanet.

The planet hunters spotted the Neptune-like planet as it crossed in front of its host star, temporarily dimming the star’s light in a way akin to a solar eclipse on Earth...

Read More

Astronomers discover 3rd planet in the Kepler-47 Circumbinary system


This is an artistic rendition of the Kepler-47 circumbinary planet system. The three planets with the large middle planet being the newly discovered Kepler47d.
Credit: NASA/JPLCaltech/T. Pyle

Astronomers have discovered a third planet in the Kepler-47 system, securing the system’s title as the most interesting of the binary-star worlds. Using data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope, a team of researchers, led by astronomers at San Diego State University, detected the new Neptune-to-Saturn-size planet orbiting between two previously known planets.

With its three planets orbiting two suns, Kepler-47 is the only known multi-planet circumbinary system. Circumbinary planets are those that orbit two stars.

The planets in the Kepler-47 system were detected via the “transit method...

Read More