Kepler Spots ‘Perfectly Aligned’ Alien Worlds When NASA’s Kepler space telescope started finding planets at odd angles to their parent stars, scientists wondered if our solar system’s tidy geometry, with the planets neatly orbiting around the sun’s equator, was an exception to the rule. That idea can be laid to rest thanks to an innovative use of the Kepler data which aligned three planets circling the sun-like star Kepler-30 with a giant spot on the star’s surface. The study showed the trio of planets orbiting within one degree, relative to each other and relative to the star’s equator. That finding is an indication that Kepler-30, like our own solar system, formed from a rotating disk of gas. keep reading Image: The planets of the Kepler-30 system, seen here in an artist’s impression, all transit the same starspot, indicating that they lie in the same geometric plane. Credit: Sanchis-Ojeda et al

Kepler Spots ‘Perfectly Aligned’ Alien Worlds

When NASA’s Kepler space telescope started finding planets at odd angles to their parent stars, scientists wondered if our solar system’s tidy geometry, with the planets neatly orbiting around the sun’s equator, was an exception to the rule.

That idea can be laid to rest thanks to an innovative use of the Kepler data which aligned three planets circling the sun-like star Kepler-30 with a giant spot on the star’s surface.

The study showed the trio of planets orbiting within one degree, relative to each other and relative to the star’s equator. That finding is an indication that Kepler-30, like our own solar system, formed from a rotating disk of gas.

keep reading

Image: The planets of the Kepler-30 system, seen here in an artist’s impression, all transit the same starspot, indicating that they lie in the same geometric plane. Credit: Sanchis-Ojeda et al

Source: news.discovery.com

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