JPL: Hidden Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller

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JPL: Hidden Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller

Post by bystander » Wed Jul 12, 2017 4:23 pm

Hidden Stars May Make Planets Appear Smaller
NASA | JPL-Caltech | Exoplanet Exploration | 2017 Jul 11
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n the search for planets similar to our own, an important point of comparison is the planet's density. A low density tells scientists a planet is more likely to be gaseous like Jupiter, and a high density is associated with rocky planets like Earth. But a new study suggests some are less dense than previously thought because of a second, hidden star in their systems.

As telescopes stare at particular patches of sky, they can't always differentiate between one star and two. A system of two closely orbiting stars may appear in images as a single point of light, even from sophisticated observatories such as NASA's Kepler space telescope. This can have significant consequences for determining the sizes of planets that orbit just one of these stars ...

Some of the most well-studied planets outside our solar system -- or exoplanets -- are known to orbit lone stars. We know Kepler-186f, an Earth-size planet in the habitable zone of its star, orbits a star that has no companion (the habitable zone is the distance at which a rocky planet could support liquid water on its surface). TRAPPIST-1, the ultra-cool dwarf star that is home to seven Earth-size planets, does not have a companion either. That means there is no second star complicating the estimation of the planets' diameters, and therefore their densities.

But other stars have a nearby companion, high-resolution imaging has recently revealed. David Ciardi ... led a large-scale effort to follow up on stars that Kepler had studied using a variety of ground-based telescopes. This, combined with other research, has confirmed that many of the stars where Kepler found planets have binary companions. In some cases, the diameters of the planets orbiting these stars were calculated without taking the companion star into consideration. That means estimates for their sizes should be smaller, and their densities higher, than their true values.

Previous studies determined that roughly half of all the sun-like stars in our sun's neighborhood have a companion within 10,000 astronomical units (an astronomical unit is equal to the average distance between the sun and Earth, 93 million miles or 150 million kilometers). Based on this, about 15 percent of stars in the Kepler field could have a bright, close companion -- meaning planets around these stars may be less dense than previously thought. ...

The Densities of Planets in Multiple Stellar Systems - E. Furlan, S. B. Howell
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This cartoon explains why the reported sizes of some exoplanets may need <br />to be revised in cases where there is a second star in the system. <br />Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This cartoon explains why the reported sizes of some exoplanets may need
to be revised in cases where there is a second star in the system.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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