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Astronomers Detect Planetary System Similar To Our Own

Posted by Soulskill on from the maybe-it-has-oil dept.

littlesparkvt writes "A team of astrophysicists at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft und- Raumfahrt; DLR), together with German and European colleagues, has discovered the most extensive exoplanetary system to date. Seven planets circle the star KOI-351 – more than in other known planetary systems. They are arranged in a similar fashion to the eight planets in the Solar System, with small rocky planets close to the parent star and gas giant planets at greater distances. Although the planetary system around KOI-351 is packed together more tightly, it provides an interesting comparison to our cosmic home."

5 of 54 comments (clear)

  1. Packed together tightly is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    All seven planets in the system are inside Earth orbit -- which may lead you to believe they're packed in tight. But one AU is 149,597,870,700m.

    The interesting thing is that this means that several of the planets could be inside the habitability zone (KOI-351 is a class G, just like the Sun, and only slightly hotter).

    1. Re:Packed together tightly is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      Are you saying that this system is packed normally, and it is our solar system which is unusually loose?

    2. Re: Packed together tightly is misleading by DigiShaman · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In the vast quantities we now have on Earth? Not on this planet at least. The Great Oxygenation Event was caused and maintained by life 2.4 billion years ago.

      Cyanobacteria, which appeared about 200 million years before the GOE, began producing oxygen by photosynthesis. Before the GOE, any free oxygen they produced was chemically captured by dissolved iron or organic matter. The GOE was the point when these oxygen sinks became saturated and could not capture all of the oxygen that was produced by cyanobacterial photosynthesis. After the GOE the excess free oxygen started to accumulate in the atmosphere. -wiki

      --
      Life is not for the lazy.
  2. Germans AND Europeans? by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that like working with a team of Canadians and also some North Americans?

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
  3. Similar to our own.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Title is a bit misleading. The star is pretty close (based on temp and size, but no spectral type), yes, but all the planets are WAAAAAAAAAAY too close to it to be anywhere near habitable. The ones farther out are Jupiter sized...

    Two of the planets closer in are a bit bigger than earth, but at orbital periods of 58 and 8 days, they're a bit too hot for my taste.

    tl;dr, the qualifier " packed together more tightly" is a little bit more important than what the summary suggests