Published in

American Association for the Advancement of Science, Science, 6094(337), p. 556-559, 2012

DOI: 10.1126/science.1223269

Links

Tools

Export citation

Search in Google Scholar

Kepler-36: A Pair of Planets with Neighboring Orbits and Dissimilar Densities

Journal article published in 2012 by Joshua A. Carter, Eric Agol, William J. Chaplin, Sarbani Basu, Timothy R. Bedding ORCID, Lars A. Buchhave ORCID, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Katherine M. Deck, Yvonne Elsworth, Daniel C. Fabrycky, Eric B. Ford, Jonathan J. Fortney, Steven J. Hale, Rasmus Handberg, Saskia Hekker and other authors.
This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

Full text: Download

Green circle
Preprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Green circle
Postprint: archiving allowed
Upload
Red circle
Published version: archiving forbidden
Policy details
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

In the Solar system the planets' compositions vary with orbital distance, with rocky planets in close orbits and lower-density gas giants in wider orbits. The detection of close-in giant planets around other stars was the first clue that this pattern is not universal, and that planets' orbits can change substantially after their formation. Here we report another violation of the orbit-composition pattern: two planets orbiting the same star with orbital distances differing by only 10%, and densities differing by a factor of 8. One planet is likely a rocky `super-Earth', whereas the other is more akin to Neptune. These planets are thirty times more closely spaced--and have a larger density contrast--than any adjacent pair of planets in the Solar system. ; Comment: Accepted for publication in Science. Published online on June 21, 2012. Main Text and supplemental information included in a single merged file, 69 pages. Attachments to the supplemental material are available for free on Science website