Alien Solar System Kepler-30
Researchers studying the star system Kepler-30, which is 10,000 light-years from Earth, found that its three known worlds all orbit in the same plane, lined up with the rotation of the star — just like the planets in our own solar system do. The result supports the leading theory of planet formation, which posits that planets take shape from a disk of dust and gas that spins around newborn stars.
"In agreement with the theory, we have found the star's spin to be aligned with the planets," said study co-author Dan Fabrycky, of the University of California, Santa Cruz. "So this result is profound because it is basic data testing the standard planet formation theory."
The research team stressed that the new study is a starting point of sorts. Astronomers will need more data to get a better handle on planet formation processes.
"Our work is suggestive, but we will need to observe a few more systems to show that indeed, for all coplanar systems similar to our own solar, the star's spin is aligned with the planets," said lead author Roberto Sanchis-Ojeda of MIT. "So far, we have the solar system and Kepler-30; a few more systems will be helpful to be completely sure."
Kepler should allow astronomers to study more such systems soon, Sanchis-Ojeda added.
"So far, we have identified between five and 10 new systems where we think we can apply this method, but the number is likely to grow while more data is processed," he told SPACE.com via email. "We are confident that we will be able to test our predictions in the next few years."
