The search for planets in space that may harbor life continues. Astronomers from the University of Chicago examined the star HD110067 and the planets around it using NASA’s TESS and Cheops satellites.
There was no possibility of life on the planets in question, but a theoretical system was actually observed for the first time. Scientists declared that this system is a “perfect solar system”.
What is the perfect solar system?
Solar systems form in two different ways. The first is systems that formed “wildly”, such as the solar system we are in. During the formation of these systems, planets collide with each other, some merge, some disappear. As a result, in systems similar to ours, planets are of different sizes.
In the case of perfect solar systems, this is not the case. The planets are arranged at a certain interval and they are all approximately the same size. These planets undergo little change, move in harmony and follow more circular orbits. HD110067’s system is such a system. These systems also enable us to obtain more information about the formation processes of planets.
“We are seeing something no one has seen before”
Making a statement about the research, Dr. from the University of Warwick. Marina Lafarga-Magro said, “This is really exciting, we are seeing something that no one has seen before.”
The system is so balanced that there is a relationship between the movements of the planets, they do not move independently like in our system. In comparison to the 3 orbits of the nearest planet around its star, the 2nd ranked planet completes 2 rotations, and the 3rd ranked planet completes 1 rotation around its star. After the 4th planet, there is a 4:3 ratio between the years of the planets. Scientists even transformed these movements into music by defining a note for the planets.
The structures of the planets, each of which is two or three times the size of the Earth, resemble Neptune. Although this planet type is the most common planet type in the Milky Way, their structure is still not fully known. It is not even known exactly whether the planets are rocky, composed of gases or liquids. The fact that the star at the center of the new system is also bright paves the way for new research on this subject.
The research was published in the journal Nature.
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