Adding to the many exoplanets discovered over the past few years, a group of citizen scientists have discovered a five-planet solar system. The Kepler space telescope, which was launched by NASA in 2009 provided the data. The planets in this unusual solar system are considered to be sub-Neptune like planets and their radii range from 1.3 – 3 times the radius of the earth. These planets orbit the star K2-138 in a resonance chain. It is when each planet takes about 50% longer to orbit than the nearest planet to the star, that the orbit is known as a resonance chain. This resonance behavior of the planetary system might hold the answers to how such planetary systems are formed.
School of Science 