The transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b
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Winn_The transiting.pdf
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8.47 MB
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Author(s)
Winn, Joshua Nathan
Alternative Title
Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b
Date Issued
January 2012
Journal
Nature
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Citation
Welsh, William F. et al. “Transiting Circumbinary Planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b.” Nature 481.7382 (2012): 475–479.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally bound pairs of stars (binaries). Although long anticipated the existence of a ‘circumbinary planet’ orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery9 of the planet transiting (that is, passing in front of) Kepler-16. Questions remained, however, about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we report two additional transiting circumbinary planets: Kepler-34 (AB)b and Kepler-35 (AB)b, referred to here as Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, respectively. Each is a low-density gas-giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 b orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, whereas Kepler-35 b orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun’s mass) every 131 days. The planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation arising from the orbital motion of the stars. The observed rate of circumbinary planets in our sample implies that more than ~1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1038/nature10768
