Researchers have uncovered a bizarre ‘compacted’ solar system with planets tightly spaced together.Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the United States National Aeronautic Space Agency (NASA) telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star.

Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, with ‘years’ of about one, three, four, seven and nine days.

Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the NASA telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star. As early as 2012, Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, with ‘years’ of about one, three, four, seven and nine days.

The planets’ close proximity to each other and their star allowed the Kepler Space Telescope to detect tiny variations (about 0.001 percent) in the length of their ‘years’ due to their mutual gravitational interactions.

“The cool thing about this system is that all five orbits fit inside 1/10 AU,” wrote Mariah MacDonald as an undergraduate with Darin Ragozzine, an assistant professor of physics and space sciences, both at Florida Institute of Technology.

The unusual planetary array highlighted in the study deepens the ongoing examination of similar systems known as STIPs – Systems with Tightly-spaced Inner Planets – and contributes to the understanding of how Earth formed.

Located about 1,100 light years away, Kepler-80, named for the NASA telescope that discovered it, features five small planets orbiting in extreme proximity to their star. MacDonald and Ragozzine uncovered the nature of the exoplanetary system through measurements taken with the telescope.As early as 2012, Kepler scientists found that all five planets orbit in an area about 150 times smaller than the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, with ‘years’ of about one, three, four, seven and nine days.

The planets’ close proximity to each other and their star allowed the Kepler Space Telescope to detect tiny variations (about 0.001 percent) in the length of their ‘years’ due to their mutual gravitational interactions.

Analysis by MacDonald and her collaborators revealed that the outer four planets had masses about four- to six-times that of Earth, though they shared Earth’s rocky composition. All four planets have masses similar to one another, though the two outermost planets are almost twice as big.
*Adapted from DailyMailUK Online