Six Planets Have Been Found Around A Bright Star, Say Scientists

Astronomers have discovered multiple planets orbiting the brightest star yet. Seemingly unchanged for a billion years, the six planets around a sun-like star are all between the size of Earth and Neptune.

However, the strangest aspect of the HD110067 star system is that the planets orbit in a very precise waltz. When the closest planet to the star makes three complete revolutions around it, the second one makes exactly two during the same time. All six planets have either 3:2 or 4:3 resonance.

All planetary systems are thought to evolve like this, but a massive planet like Jupiter, a close encounter with a passing star or a giant impact event brings an element of chaos to most. Not so HD110067.

Pristine Planets

“We think only about one percent of all systems stay in resonance,” said Rafael Luque of the University of Chicago in a press release. “It shows us the pristine configuration of a planetary system that has survived untouched.”

That alone makes HD110067 special, but it’s also one of only three known six-planet resonant systems. HD110067 is also the brightest known star with four or more planets. The research has been published today in the journal Nature.

Resonant Orbits

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) first discovered evidence of two planets around HD110067 in 2020 and two more in 2022. However, the data only made sense once scientists realized that the orbits of the planets may be in resonance.

That breakthrough came when ESA’s CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite (Cheops) telescope—only launched in late 2019—discovered a third planet, which proved to be the key to unlocking a chain of resonant orbits that then revealed the likely location of three more planets.

Six Planets

The outermost planet of the three planets initially found takes 20.5 Earth days to orbit its star, 1.5 times the next star inwards, which takes 13.6 Earth days, 1.5 times the next one at 9.1 Earth days. Once Cheops confirmed there were six planets, the authors calculated the orbits, with the farthest from its star taking 54 Earth days to complete one rotation.

The innermost planet, therefore, completes six orbits for every one orbit of the outermost planet. “Cheops gave us this resonant configuration that allowed us to predict all the other periods,” said Rafael. “Without that detection from Cheops, it would have been impossible.”

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The authors also calculated the masses and densities of the planets, which appear to have large hydrogen-rich atmospheres ideal for studying with the James Webb Space Telescope.

It’s the second planetary system in orbital resonance that Cheops helped reveal, discovering TOI-178 in January 2021.

Get To Know Coma Berenices

The HD110067 star system is around 100 light-years away in the northern constellation of Coma Berenices, a relatively dim L-shape of three stars to the naked eye. It’s found between Boötes, the Big Dipper, and the tip of Leo’s tail.

The brightest star in Coma Berenices is the middle star, Beta Comae Berenices, 30 light-years from the solar system. Sweep binoculars across it, and you’ll see 20 more bright stars—and many dimmer stars—that are part of an open cluster called the Coma Star Cluster or Melotte 111. That open cluster of stars is around 288 light-years distant, making it one of the nearest star clusters to our solar system.

Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.

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