March 5, 2019
Research Highlight
Over-Tilting Exoplanets
Yale researchers have discovered a surprising link between the tilting of exoplanets and their orbit in space. The discovery may help explain a long-standing puzzle about exoplanetary orbital architectures.Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech, Sarah Millholland.
From Yale University:
For almost a decade, astronomers have tried to explain why so many pairs of planets outside our solar system have an odd configuration — their orbits seem to have been pushed apart by a powerful unknown mechanism. Yale researchers say they’ve found a possible answer, and it implies that the planets’ poles are majorly tilted.
The finding could have a big impact on how researchers estimate the structure, climate, and habitability of exoplanets as they try to identify planets that are similar to Earth.
Click here to read the full press release.
The study, “Obliquity-driven sculpting of exoplanetary systems,” was published in the journal Nature Astronomy. The work was supported in part through the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) element of the NASA Astrobiology Program.