NASA announced recently that the Kepler spacecraft, launched last year and currently in orbit around 26milioni of miles from Earth, has discovered a planetary system composed of two, maybe three planets , orbiting along the same orbital plane around its star. This is the first time that the observation of so-called exoplanets - that is external to our solar system - gives scientists a complex system composed of more than one planet. The two celestial bodies so far confirmed will be called simply Kepler9b Kepler9c and in reference to the star around which they orbit.
When satisfied that the presence of the system, scientists have completed the survey the data with those collected in the same area of \u200b\u200bthe Milky Way from the Keck telescope in Hawaii. Subsequent analysis indicates that Kepler9b is the larger of the two planets with a mass slightly less than that of Saturn and an orbital period of 19 days. Kepler9c, smaller than the first but has an orbit of 38 days. The Kepler spacecraft, in orbit since the spring of 2009 monitors thousands of stars and is currently investigating 700 potential planetary systems.
Source ilsole24ore.it
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