Planetary Society logo
  • “Exploration is in our nature.” - Carl Sagan

The Kepler-80 system

The Kepler-80 system
The Kepler-80 system The Kepler-80 exoplanetary system has five known transiting planets. This animation shows a snapshot of the system every ~27 days when the outer two planets (b – red and c – green) have their closest approach. Because the outer four planets have uniquely synchronized orbits, the middle two planets (d – purple and e – blue) also come back to nearly the exact same positions. The innermost planet (f – yellow) is far enough from the other planets that tides have pulled it out of the synchronous pattern: therefore, it explores its entire orbital range during these snapshots.