Astronomers have simulated 24 planets flying in the same orbit like pearls on a necklace.
Earth and 7 other planets orbit together in the solar system but move in separate orbits. However, other star systems may have 2, 3, or even 24 planets chasing each other in the same orbit around the host star, popular science On May 3, it was reported.
The number of planets sharing the same orbit around the host star can be up to 24.
The number of planets sharing the same orbit around the host star can be up to 24. (Image: ƁBC).
Computer simulations by an international team of astronomers illustrate how more than two dozen planets can share the same orbit in a study published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. This configuration can be stable for billions of years, even longer than the orbiting star, says lead researcher Sean Raymond of the Ordeaux Astrophysics Laboratory.
There are several examples small celestial bodies in the same orbit. The solar system has strange orbits called horseshoe orbit or tadpole, depending on their shape. These share tadpole orbits with Jupiter at points ahead and behind the gas giant. Saturn’s two moons, Janus and Epimethes, revolve around the planet in a horseshoe-shaped orbit and periodically change places. Therefore, researchers believe that there may exist exoplanets in the same orbit.
The simulations by Raymond and his colleagues also reveal that the planet and its orbit have characteristic signs that astronomers on Earth must observe. The Kepler space telescope and many other observatories can detect it transit time fluctuations (TTV), in which the gravitational pull between neighboring planets changes slightly as the planet moves past the host star. The TTV of a star system of 24 Earth-sized planets sharing the same orbit will be large enough for astronomers to observe. But it will take months or even years of monitoring to detect the effect, according to astronomer Rosa Zellem of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Article source: VnExpress
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Astronomers have simulated 24 planets flying in the same orbit as beads in a necklace. Earth and 7 other planets together…
