Here’s the Latest Kepler Orrery Video: the Orbits of the Planets Go ‘Round and ‘Round
If you’ve ever wanted to know what 3,538 exoplanets look like spinning around their stars, here you go!
This is the third and latest installment of the mesmerizing Kepler Orrery videos by Daniel Fabrycky from the Kepler science team. It shows the relative sizes of the orbits and planets in the multi-transiting planetary systems discovered by Kepler up to November 2013 (according to the Kepler site, 3,538 candidates so far.) According to Daniel “the colors simply go by order from the star (the most colorful is the 7-planet system KOI-351). The terrestrial planets of the Solar System are shown in gray.”
Not that our Solar System is boring, of course, but well, ya know… there are an awful lot of planets out there.
Check out Daniel’s previous version here.
Recent Posts
TESS Finds its First Rogue Planet
Well over 5,000 planets have been found orbiting other star systems. One of the satellites…
There are Four Ways to Build with Regolith on the Moon
Over the last few years I have been renovating my home. Building on Earth seems…
Purple Bacteria — Not Green Plants — Might Be the Strongest Indication of Life
Astrobiologists continue to work towards determining which biosignatures might be best to look for when…
See the Southern Ring Nebula in 3D
Planetary nebula are some of nature's most stunning visual displays. The name is confusing since…
Hubble Has Accidentally Discovered Over a Thousand Asteroids
The venerable Hubble Space Telescope is like a gift that keeps on giving. Not only…
NASA Restores Communications with Voyager 1
The venerable Voyager 1 spacecraft is finally phoning home again. This is much to the…