Mystery Fourth Planet Found in "Super-Puff" System
A team of researchers from Penn State and Osaka University has uncovered a fourth planet in the unusual Kepler-51 planetary system, known for its three ultra-low-density "super-puff" planets. Using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the team set out to study Kepler-51d, one of the known planets, but encountered an unexpected twist when it transited its star two hours earlier than predicted. Further analysis of new and archival data revealed that the discrepancy could only be explained by the gravitational influence of an additional, previously undetected planet in the system.
The discovery is detailed in a study published on December 3 in the Astronomical Journal.
"Super-puff planets are fascinating because of their incredibly low density," explained Jessica Libby-Roberts, co-first author and Postdoctoral Fellow at Penn State's Center for Exoplanets and Habitable Worlds. "The known planets in this system are about the size of Saturn but have only a few times Earth's mass, making them as fluffy as cotton candy. We aimed to study one of these planets with JWST to explore how such planets form and retain their atmospheres despite the intense radiation from their young star. The unexpected discovery of a fourth planet adds a new layer to this mystery."
Planets transiting their star create small dips in its brightness, which allow astronomers to deduce their size, mass, and orbital characteristics. However, variations in the predicted transit times, caused by gravitational interactions with other planets, can signal the presence of additional bodies in the system.
The researchers initially believed their three-planet model for Kepler-51 was accurate. They successfully observed a transit of Kepler-51b in May 2023 using the Apache Point Observatory (APO) telescope. However, when attempting to observe Kepler-51d in June 2023 with JWST and APO, the predicted transit time was off by a significant margin.
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"Luckily, we began observing early to establish a baseline," Libby-Roberts said. "When the transit didn't occur as expected, we re-analyzed our data and found a slight dip in brightness at the start of our observation. The transit had begun two hours earlier than anticipated, far outside our model's uncertainty range."
The researchers concluded that no adjustments to the three-planet model could account for such a large discrepancy. Instead, the data pointed to the gravitational influence of a fourth planet.
"This is the first planet discovered through transit timing variations using JWST," noted co-first author Kento Masuda, associate professor of earth and space science at Osaka University.
The discovery adds complexity to the Kepler-51 system and provides new opportunities to investigate the formation and evolution of super-puff planets. Future observations may shed further light on the enigmatic characteristics of this unique planetary system.