Astronomers have long puzzled over why all of the planets in our Solar System have slightly slanted orbits around the Sun. But Yale University planetary astrophysicist Malena Rice and colleagues suggest this phenomenon may not be so unusual after all. In their new study, they conducted a comprehensive analysis of pristine multiplanet systems, where the orbits of planets have remained relatively undisturbed since their formation.
“This type of configuration, where one planet’s orbit is precisely ordered with another in an exact integer ratio of orbital periods, is likely common to find in a solar system early in its development,” Dr. Rice said.
“It’s a gorgeous configuration — but only a small percentage of systems retain it.”
“And even in these planetary systems, planets can have an orbital tilt of up to 20 degrees.”
Dr. Rice and her co-authors began their work by measuring the slanty orbit of TOI-2202b, a warm Jupiter in a pristine planetary system.
They compared TOI-2202b’s orbit with orbit data from the full census of similar planets found in the NASA Exoplanet Archive.
Put in this larger context, there was a typical tilt of as much as 20 degrees for such planets, with TOI-2202b’s system being one of the most strongly tilted such systems.
“The discovery provides valuable information about early solar system development — and says something important about Earth’s system: that a little bit of tilting is par for the cosmic course,” Dr. Rice said.
“It’s reassuring. It tells us that we’re not a super-weird solar system. This is really like looking at ourselves in a funhouse mirror and seeing how we fit into the bigger picture of the Universe.”
The authors are also trying to understand hot Jupiter systems, which are systems that contain gas giant planets that may be similar to Jupiter, but with very short orbital periods.
“When did they get tilted? Can they just be born that way?”
“To find that out, I first need to…
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