Kepler Finds a Very Wobbly Planet   
       
   Feb. 4, 2014:  Imagine living on a planet with seasons so erratic you would   
   hardly know whether to wear Bermuda shorts or a heavy overcoat. That is the   
   situation on a weird, wobbly world found by NASA's planet-hunting Kepler space   
   telescope.   
       
   The planet, designated Kepler-413b, precesses, or wobbles, wildly on its spin   
   axis, much like a child's top. The tilt of the planet's spin axis can vary by   
   as much as 30 degrees over 11 years, leading to rapid and erratic changes in   
   seasons. In contrast, Earth's rotational precession is a relatively tame 23.5   
   degrees over 26,000 years. Researchers are amazed that this far-off planet is   
   precessing on a human timescale.   
       
   http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/14-041_kepler_p1412aw_0.jpg   
       
   This illustration shows the unusual orbit of planet Kepler-413b around a close   
   pair of orange and red dwarf stars. The planet's 66-day orbit is tilted 2.5   
   degrees with respect to the plane of the binary star's orbit. The orbit of the   
   planet wobbles around the central stars over 11 years. Image Credit:  NASA,   
   ESA, and A. Feild (STScI)   
       
   Kepler 413-b is located 2,300 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. It   
   circles a close pair of orange and red dwarf stars every 66 days. The planet's   
   orbit around the binary stars appears to wobble, too, because the plane of its   
   orbit is tilted 2.5 degrees with respect to the plane of the star pair's   
   orbit. As seen from Earth, the wobbling orbit moves up and down continuously.   
       
   Kepler finds planets by measuring the dimming of starlight when a planet   
   passes in front of its parent sun--or, in this case, suns because the planet   
   circles a pair of stars. Normally, planets transit like clockwork. Astronomers   
   using Kepler discovered the wobbling when they found an unusual pattern of   
   transiting for Kepler-413b.   
       
   "Looking at the Kepler data over the course of 1,500 days, we saw three   
   transits in the first 180 days -- one transit every 66 days -- then we had 800   
   days with no transits at all. After that, we saw five more transits in a row,"   
   said Veselin Kostov, the principal investigator on the observation. Kostov is   
   affiliated with the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins   
   University in Baltimore, Md. "[The next transit visible from Earth is not   
   predicted to occur until 2020.]"   
       
   Astronomers are still trying to explain why this planet is out of alignment   
   with its stars. There could be other planetary bodies in the system that   
   tilted the orbit. Or, it could be that a third star nearby that is a visual   
   companion may actually be gravitationally bound to the system and exerting an   
   influence.   
       
   "Presumably there are planets out there like this one that we're not seeing   
   because we're in the unfavorable period," said Peter McCullough, a team member   
   with the Space Telescope Science Institute and Johns Hopkins University. "And   
   that's one of the things that Veselin is researching: Is there a silent   
   majority of things that we're not seeing?"   
       
   Even with its changing seasons, Kepler-413b is too warm for life as we know   
   it. Because it orbits so close to the stars, its temperatures are too high for   
   liquid water to exist, making it inhabitable. It also is a super Neptune -- a   
   giant gas planet with a mass about 65 times that of Earth -- so there is no   
   surface on which to stand.   
       
   Credits:   
   Production editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA   
       
   More information:   
   NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., is responsible for the   
   Kepler mission concept, ground system development, mission operations and   
   science data analysis. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.,   
   managed Kepler mission development. Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. in   
   Boulder, Colo., developed the Kepler flight system and supports mission   
   operations with the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics at the   
   University of Colorado in Boulder. The Space Telescope Science Institute in   
   Baltimore archives, hosts and distributes Kepler science data. Kepler is   
   NASA's 10th Discovery mission and was funded by the agency's Science Mission   
   Directorate.   
       
   For images and more information about Kepler-413b, visit: http:/   
   hubblesite.org/news/2014/12   
       
   For more information about the Kepler space telescope, visit: ht   
   p://www.nasa.gov/kepler   
       
       
   Regards,   
       
   Roger   
      
   --- D'Bridge 3.98   
    * Origin: NCS BBS - Houma, LoUiSiAna (1:3828/7)