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Citizen Planet Hunters Find a Planet in a Four-Star System
A family portrait of the PH1 planetary system: The newly discovered planet is depicted in this artist’s rendition transiting the larger of the two eclipsing stars it orbits. Off in the distance, well beyond the planet orbit, resides a second pair of stars bound to the planetary system. Image Credit: Haven Giguere/Yale.
A planet has been discovered orbiting in a four-star system — and no, that doesn’t mean the accommodations and conditions are excellent. It literally means four stars, where a planet is orbiting a binary star system that in turn is orbited by a second distant pair of stars. This is the first system like this that has ever been found, and its discovery demonstrates the power of citizen scientists, as it was found by a joint effort of amateurs participating on the Planet Hunters website under the guidance of professional astronomers.
This is might be an extremely rare planetary setup, astronomer Meg Schwamb from Yale says, as only six planets are currently known to orbit two stars, and none of these are orbited by other stellar companions. Astronomers are calling the newly found world a ‘circumbinary’ planet.
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Read the rest of Citizen Planet Hunters Find a Planet in a Four-Star System (466 words)
© nancy for Universe Today, 2012. | Permalink | No comment |
Post tags: Citizen Scientists Circumbinary planet, extrasolar planet, Planet Hunters
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2012-10-15 14:05:01
Source: http://www.universetoday.com/97999/citizen-planet-hunters-find-planet-in-a-four-star-system/
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