Kepler-88 has a new king! Planet three-times Jupiter's mass discovered in alien star system

[Judi Lynn]

By Gemma Lavender 5 hours ago

Orbiting its sun-like star every four days, the giant could play a role in sparking life on rocky worlds.

- video at link -

It appears that planetary heavyweight Kepler-88 c, which orbits the sunlike star Kepler-88, is no longer the gravitational god of the exoplanets in the Kepler-88 system, according to a new study. A new world was recently confirmed in the system, tipping the scales at three times the mass of solar system giant Jupiter.

Led by a team of astronomers at the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy (UH IfA), the research — which is based on six years of data taken from W.M. Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawaii — uncovered a previously undetected third exoplanet orbiting Kepler-88. Named Kepler-88 d, the newfound planet completes slow-moving laps around its host star every four years.

It was the keen telescopic eye of the High-Resolution Echelle Spectrometer (HIRES) instrument affixed to the 10-meter Keck I telescope that revealed to lead author Lauren Weiss, a Beatrice Watson Parrent Postdoctoral Fellow at UH IfA, her team had made a game-changing discovery.

"At three times the mass of Jupiter, Kepler-88 d has likely been more influential in the history of the Kepler-88 system than the so-called King, Kepler-88 c, which is only one Jupiter mass," Weiss said. "So maybe Kepler-88 d is the new supreme monarch of this planetary empire — the empress."

More:
https://www.space.com/exoplanet-three-times-jupiters-mass-discovery-kepler-88.html

[Laelth]

1. Four years or four days?

Methinks there’s a typo in the article above. Four years is far more likely.

-Laelth

[Bradshaw3]

2. Headline is wrong

Article says four years, headline four days. That happens a lot since the headline writer and article author are often different people.

[Laelth]

4. I assumed as much. n/t

-Laelth

[Judi Lynn]

3. True. Someone was asleep at the wheel. The 2nd paragraph does say 4 years! Thanks. n/t

[Laelth]

5. n/p 4 days is ridiculously fast for a gas giant.

A typo was the most logical explanation.

-Laelth

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. gas. gas giant. huh huh huh.

I apologize, I just couldn’t help myself....