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Kepler Sees Partial Exoplanetary Eclipse

Posted by Soulskill on from the peek-a-boo-from-light-years-away dept.

New submitter CelestialScience writes "The heavens have aligned in a way never seen before, with two exoplanets overlapping as they cross their star. Teruyuki Hirano of the University of Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues used data from the Kepler space telescope to probe KOI-94, a star seemingly orbited by four planets. It seems that one planet candidate, KOI-94.03, passed in front of the star and then the innermost candidate, KOI-94.01, passed between the two. The phenomenon is so new it doesn't yet have a name, though suggestions include 'planet-planet eclipse,' 'double transit,' 'syzygy' and 'exosyzygy.'"

35 comments

  1. First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    My first post is eclipsing all other attempts at first! Muahahahaaa!

  2. Wouldn't it simply be 'occultation'? by Picass0 · · Score: 1

    Or 'multi-object occultation'?

    1. Re:Wouldn't it simply be 'occultation'? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      double secret occultation

    2. Re:Wouldn't it simply be 'occultation'? by Baloroth · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Or 'multi-object occultation'?

      Not really, since the star wasn't blocked from view (well, I'm assuming it wasn't, would need to be a really big planet for that to happen) by either planet, although the inner one may have been blocked by the outer, so it couldn't be an occultation. This would be a transit, since it is an apparently smaller body passing in front of a larger one, although the inner planet may be being occulted by the outer.

      Since it is three bodies, though, we already have a term for this: syzygy. That is exactly what it is. Three celestial bodies in apparent alignment (although all Kepler observations use syzygies, since they rely on the Earth, planet, and star being in alignment).

      --
      "None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
    3. Re:Wouldn't it simply be 'occultation'? by Teancum · · Score: 1

      Technically the Earth is not one of those objects because Kepler isn't even in orbit around the Earth, but rather in an Earth-Sun Lagrangian orbital position. That would be the trailing point, or L-5. Still, over the distances involved it might as well be the Earth.

  3. I'd call it co-transit. by mmmmbeer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or perhaps multi-transit, for when more than two transit at the same time.

  4. Doesn't this happen every 5000 years? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where is Lara Croft when you need her?

  5. Are the planets inhabited? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    "exosyzygy"?

    I wonder if the planets ate inhabited by exozyzzyvas or exozyzzyzus?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyzzyva
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyzzyzus

  6. Kepler Sees Partial Exoplanetary Eclipse by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 2

    "The phenomenon is so new it doesn't yet have a name"

    Actually, I think this phenomenon is called "beginner's luck".

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  7. It isn't new by mcgrew · · Score: 1

    There's a photo on NASA's site from a probe on the other side of Saturn (and slightly above), with Earth transiting. I'd be surprised if none of the double transits in our own solar system have been photographed by one of our probes.

    --
    Free Martian Whores!
    1. Re:It isn't new by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      I wasn't aware that Saturn was in a different solar system.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    2. Re:It isn't new by hazah · · Score: 1

      Something is off with your calibaration. "in our own solar system" is right there, in the second sentence.

    3. Re:It isn't new by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      The article says it's new because it's the first time this has happened in another solar system (TFS specifically says exoplanet). Mcgrew states this is not new because it's happened with Saturn. Hence my sarcastic remark.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    4. Re:It isn't new by hazah · · Score: 1

      I suppose I can flex a bit to get it :). Sorry for ruining the pun :P. I guess?

  8. It's simple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not just call it a planetary eclipse?

  9. On names by gman003 · · Score: 4, Funny

    My vote is on "exosyzygy", simply because of how many points that would get you in Scrabble.

    1. Re:On names by dkleinsc · · Score: 1

      Alas, there are only 2 Y's in a Scrabble set.

      --
      I am officially gone from /. Long live http://www.soylentnews.com/
    2. Re:On names by yotto · · Score: 1

      That can be solved (albeit for less points) with a blank.

      A bigger problem is that the word is 9 letters long, so not only do you need all the right tiles, but two of those letters already on the board with the right spacing.

      --
      Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
    3. Re:On names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alas, there are only 2 Y's in a Scrabble set.

      And two blanks... so potentially 4 Ys

      That's why PIZZAZZ is forever out of our reach.... damned Harvard wordsmiths!

    4. Re:On names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That can be solved (albeit for less points) with a blank.

      A bigger problem is that the word is 9 letters long, so not only do you need all the right tiles, but two of those letters already on the board with the right spacing.

      "Ex" is a valid Scrabble word; so it seems this is feasible, if about as likely as a royal flush...

    5. Re:On names by Randym · · Score: 1
      'exosyzygy'

      Best. Band. Name. Ever.

      --
      DNA is a Turing machine. You, however, being dynamic and emergent, are not.
  10. A Heinlein "Prediction" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    In one of Robert Heinlein's classic "juvenile" novels ("Time for the Stars", I think), the ship arrives at a new star system and the astonomer onboard notes that the planets appear to be arranged per Bode's Law. Now that the Kepler telescopeis finding multi-planet systems, I've been wondering whether or not any of them have that (or some similar) series of orbital spacings. I wouldn't expect them all to be like Sol System because different stars have different masses.

    Anyway, I didn't know who to ask. Maybe someone here knows someone who knows someone who has been looking into it.

  11. Double transit by mbone · · Score: 2

    First, it's a double transit.

    Second, check out this double transit here in our solar system.

    1. Re:Double transit by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      The double transit was visible only inside a narrow corridor a few hundred meters wide. And it was brief. The space station crosses in the Sun in a split second. Maruska knew when and where to look thanks to the predictions of Thomas Fly, an expert forecaster of ISS transits.

      And that, right there, is why math(s) is cool.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
  12. Mercury/Venus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If Mercury ducked behind Venus wouldn't that be the same phenomenon but observable from Earth?

  13. xyzzy by HeckRuler · · Score: 1

    No one's made the joke about planets aligning in an xyzzy pattern will instantly teleport us here?

    Feeling old.

  14. Double Eclipse! by yotto · · Score: 1

    What does it meeeeeeeean!?
     
    /Yeah it's an old joke, but someone had to make it.

    --
    Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
    1. Re:Double Eclipse! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No.

      They didn't.

  15. Oh Oh I know! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Planet On Planet Action!

  16. mulllll-teee-passs? by jefe7777 · · Score: 2

    Leeloo Dallas multipass.

  17. Schrödinger's cat is alive! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OT but even more interesting from same New Scientist.
    http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn22336-quantum-measurements-leave-schrodingers-cat-alive.html

  18. Re:Picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Are you an idiot? Is that your problem? You do seem to be an idiot.

  19. Re:Picture by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That the post was automatically scored a zero by Slashdot before moderation should speak volumes about the quality of the post alone.

  20. I really really really wanna by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > 'syzygy' and 'exosyzygy.'"

    Thanks a bunch, now I've got a Spice Girls track stuck in my head.