Transiting circumbinary planets Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b

January 2012 • 2012Natur.481..475W

Authors • Welsh, William F. • Orosz, Jerome A. • Carter, Joshua A. • Fabrycky, Daniel C. • Ford, Eric B. • Lissauer, Jack J. • Prša, Andrej • Quinn, Samuel N. • Ragozzine, Darin • Short, Donald R. • Torres, Guillermo • Winn, Joshua N. • Doyle, Laurance R. • Barclay, Thomas • Batalha, Natalie • Bloemen, Steven • Brugamyer, Erik • Buchhave, Lars A. • Caldwell, Caroline • Caldwell, Douglas A. • Christiansen, Jessie L. • Ciardi, David R. • Cochran, William D. • Endl, Michael • Fortney, Jonathan J. • Gautier, Thomas N., III • Gilliland, Ronald L. • Haas, Michael R. • Hall, Jennifer R. • Holman, Matthew J. • Howard, Andrew W. • Howell, Steve B. • Isaacson, Howard • Jenkins, Jon M. • Klaus, Todd C. • Latham, David W. • Li, Jie • Marcy, Geoffrey W. • Mazeh, Tsevi • Quintana, Elisa V. • Robertson, Paul • Shporer, Avi • Steffen, Jason H. • Windmiller, Gur • Koch, David G. • Borucki, William J.

Abstract • Most Sun-like stars in the Galaxy reside in gravitationally bound pairs of stars (binaries). Although long anticipated, the existence of a `circumbinary planet' orbiting such a pair of normal stars was not definitively established until the discovery of the planet transiting (that is, passing in front of) Kepler-16. Questions remained, however, about the prevalence of circumbinary planets and their range of orbital and physical properties. Here we report two additional transiting circumbinary planets: Kepler-34 (AB)b and Kepler-35 (AB)b, referred to here as Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, respectively. Each is a low-density gas-giant planet on an orbit closely aligned with that of its parent stars. Kepler-34 b orbits two Sun-like stars every 289 days, whereas Kepler-35 b orbits a pair of smaller stars (89% and 81% of the Sun's mass) every 131 days. The planets experience large multi-periodic variations in incident stellar radiation arising from the orbital motion of the stars. The observed rate of circumbinary planets in our sample implies that more than ~1% of close binary stars have giant planets in nearly coplanar orbits, yielding a Galactic population of at least several million.

Links

• SIMBAD http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbo.pl?bibcode=2012Natur.481..475W
• DATA http://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/other/Nat/481.475
• DATA http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/DisplayOverview/nph-DisplayOverview?type=REFERENCE&bibcode=2012Natur.481..475W
• DATA https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/other/Nat/481.475
• DATA https://archive.stsci.edu/mastbibref.php?bibcode=2012Natur.481..475W
• PREPRINT http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.3955
• ELECTR https://doi.org/10.1038%2Fnature10768
• SPIRES http://inspirehep.net/search?p=find+eprint+arXiv:1204.3955