A Closely-Packed System of Low-Mass, Low-Density Planets Transiting Kepler-11

2011/02/01 by Jack J. Lissauer, Daniel C. Fabrycky, Eric B. Ford +43 · 25 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.EP

paper · pdf · doi:10.1038/nature09760

published in Nature

arxiv created 2011/02/01 · crossref issued 2011/02/01 · crossref published 2011/02/01 · crossref published-print 2011/02/01 · openalex publication_date 2011/02/01 · crossref published-online 2011/02/02 · crossref created 2011/02/02 · arxiv updated 2015/05/27 · crossref deposited 2023/05/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

When an extrasolar planet passes in front of its star (transits), its radius can be measured from the decrease in starlight and its orbital period from the time between transits. Multiple planets transiting the same star reveal more: period ratios determine stability and dynamics, mutual gravitational interactions reflect planet masses and orbital shapes, and the fraction of transiting planets observed as multiples has implications for the planarity of planetary systems. But few stars have more than one known transiting planet, and none has more than three. Here we report Kepler spacecraft observations of a single Sun-like star that reveal six transiting planets, five with orbital periods between 10 and 47 days plus a sixth one with a longer period. The five inner planets are among the smallest whose masses and sizes have both been measured, and these measurements imply substantial envelopes of light gases. The degree of coplanarity and proximity of the planetary orbits imply energy dissipation near the end of planet formation.

Citations

• Non-Keplerian Dynamics
• Towards Better Age Estimates for Stellar Populations: The Y² Isochrones for Solar Mixture
• THE ATMOSPHERIC SIGNATURES OF SUPER-EARTHS: HOW TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN HYDROGEN-RICH AND HYDROGEN-POOR ATMOSPHERES
• Orbital Perturbations of Transiting Planets: A Possible Method to Measure Stellar Quadrupoles and to Detect Earth‐Mass Planets
• The Keck Planet Search: Detectability and the Minimum Mass and Orbital Period Distribution of Extrasolar Planets

Cited by

• ALL SIX PLANETS KNOWN TO ORBIT KEPLER-11 HAVE LOW DENSITIES
• Defining and cataloging exoplanets: the exoplanet.eu database
• The HARPS search for Earth-like planets in the habitable zone
• Origin and loss of nebula-captured hydrogen envelopes from ‘sub’- to ‘super-Earths’ in the habitable zone of Sun-like stars
• VERY LOW DENSITY PLANETS AROUND KEPLER-51 REVEALED WITH TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS AND AN ANOMALY SIMILAR TO A PLANET-PLANET ECLIPSE EVENT
• THE KEPLER-19 SYSTEM: A TRANSITING 2.2R⊕PLANET AND A SECOND PLANET DETECTED VIA TRANSIT TIMING VARIATIONS
• Photometrically derived masses and radii of the planet and star in the TrES-2 system
• IN SITU AND EX SITU FORMATION MODELS OF KEPLER 11 PLANETS
• Theoretical Spectra of Terrestrial Exoplanet Surfaces
• Exoplanetary Geophysics: An Emerging Discipline
• Evidence for 9 planets in the HD 10180 system
• Kepler-20: A Sun-like Star with Three Sub-Neptune Exoplanets and Two Earth-size Candidates
• Six transiting planets and a chain of Laplace resonances in TOI-178
• A DYNAMICAL ANALYSIS OF THE KEPLER-80 SYSTEM OF FIVE TRANSITING PLANETS
• There might be giants: unseen Jupiter-mass planets as sculptors of tightly packed planetary systems
• THE PLANETARY SYSTEM TO KIC 11442793: A COMPACT ANALOGUE TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM
• Kepler-36: A Pair of Planets with Neighboring Orbits and Dissimilar Densities
• Identifying Exoplanets with Deep Learning: A Five-planet Resonant Chain around Kepler-80 and an Eighth Planet around Kepler-90
• Breaking the chains: hot super-Earth systems from migration and disruption of compact resonant chains
• ARCHITECTURE AND DYNAMICS OF KEPLER 'S CANDIDATE MULTIPLE TRANSITING PLANET SYSTEMS
• VALIDATION OFKEPLER'S MULTIPLE PLANET CANDIDATES. II. REFINED STATISTICAL FRAMEWORK AND DESCRIPTIONS OF SYSTEMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST
• A resonant chain of four transiting, sub-Neptune planets
• Exoplanet characterisation in the longest known resonant chain: the K2-138 system seen by HARPS
• THE LICK-CARNEGIE SURVEY: A NEW TWO-PLANET SYSTEM AROUND THE STAR HD 207832
• ON THE LOW FALSE POSITIVE PROBABILITIES OFKEPLERPLANET CANDIDATES
• Cygnus (constellation) [wikipedia]