Unique family of alien worlds found locked in an orderly resonance 'dance'
Scott Sutherland
mercredi, 27 janvier 2021 à 06:11 - The orderly dance of this disorderly collection of worlds challenges assumptions about how planet systems form
Astronomers have discovered a planetary system that has only gotten stranger the more they have looked at it.
In the southern constellation of Sculptor, a nondescript orange star was flagged by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) after the telescope spotted the tell-tale signs that planets were orbiting around it. TOI-178, as it came to be called, is a bit smaller and dimmer than our Sun. Observations by TESS recorded evidence for 'transits' — when the star's light dims slightly as a planet passes in front of it — of at least one planet, or perhaps two.