A few weeks ago, Astrobites reported on a Neptune-sized planet discovered orbiting a star in the Hyades cluster. A separate study submitted at the same time, however, reveals that there may be even more planets lurking in this system.

Thanks, Kepler

As we learn about the formation and evolution of planets outside of our own solar system, it’s important that we search for planets throughout different types of star clusters; observing both old and young clusters, for instance, can tell us about planets in different stages of their evolutionary histories. Luckily for us, we have a tool that has been doing exactly this: the Kepler mission.

In true holiday spirit, Kepler is the gift that just keeps on giving. Though two of its reaction wheels have failed, Kepler — now as its reincarnation, K2 — just keeps detecting more planet transits. What’s more, detailed analysis of past Kepler/K2 data with ever more powerful techniques — as well as the addition of high-precision parallaxes for stars from Gaia in the near future — ensures that the Kepler data set will continue to reveal new exoplanet transits for many years to come.

Hunting in the Young Hyades

Two studies using K2 data were recently submitted on exoplanet discoveries around EPIC 247589423 in the Hyades cluster, a nearby star cluster that is only 800 million years old. Astrobites reported on the first study in October and discussed details about the newly discovered mini-Neptune presented in that study.

The second study, led by Andrew Mann (University of Texas at Austin and NASA Hubble Fellow at Columbia University), was published this week. This study presented a slightly different outcome: the authors detect the presence of not just the one, but three exoplanets orbiting EPIC 247589423.

New Discoveries

Mann and collaborators searched through the K2 light curves of young stars as part of the ZEIT (Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time) Survey. Using these data, they identified the presence of three planets in the EPIC 247589423 system:

a roughly Earth-sized planet (~1.0 Earth radii) with a period of ~8.0 days, the mini-Neptune identified in the other study, with a size of ~2.9 Earth radii and period of ~17 days, and a super-Earth, with a size of ~1.5 Earth radii and period of ~26 days.

The smallest planet is among the youngest Earth-sized planets ever discovered, allowing us a rare glimpse into the history and evolution of planets similar to our own.

But these planetary discoveries are additionally exciting because they’re orbiting a bright star that’s relatively quiet for its age — making the system an excellent target for dedicated radial-velocity observations to determine the planet masses.

Since most young star clusters are much further away, they lie out of range of radial-velocity follow-up, rendering EPIC 247589423 a unique opportunity to explore the properties of young planets in detail. With more discoveries like these from Kepler’s data, we can hope to soon learn more about planets in all their stages of evolution.

Citation

Andrew W. Mann et al 2018 AJ 155 4. doi:10.3847/1538-3881/aa9791

Related Journal Articles

Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). IV. Seven Transiting Planets in the Praesepe Cluster doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/aa5276

Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). I. A Neptune-sized Planet Orbiting an M4.5 Dwarf in the Hyades Star Cluster doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/818/1/46

Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). V. A Uniform Search for Transiting Planets in Young Clusters Observed by K2 doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9070

doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa9070 Zodiacal Exoplanets in Time (ZEIT). III. A Short-period Planet Orbiting a Pre-main-sequence Star in the Upper Scorpius OB Association doi: 10.3847/0004-6256/152/3/61

The Gold Standard: Accurate Stellar and Planetary Parameters for Eight Kepler M Dwarf Systems Enabled by Parallaxes doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa7140

M Dwarf Systems Enabled by Parallaxes doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa7140 A Low-mass Exoplanet Candidate Detected by K2 Transiting the Praesepe M Dwarf JS 183 doi: 10.3847/1538-3881/aa62ab

This post originally appeared on AAS Nova, which features research highlights from the journals of the American Astronomical Society.