TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A new discovery by NASA, using Kepler telescope, has revealed a planet with erratic changes in seasons, as reported by HubbleSite yesterday.
The Kepler-413b designated planet is unique, as it rotates and wobbles wildly on its axis. The tilt of the planet's axis can vary as much as 30 degrees over 11 years. On the contrary to the planet, the earth's tilt axis is 23.5 degrees over 26,000 years.
Kepler-413b is located 2,300 light-year away in the constellation Cygnus. The planet orbits a pair of orange and red dwarf stars for 66 days.
Kepler telescope, known as planet-hunting telescope, finds new planets by noticing dims on a star as a planet transits in front of the star, forming a pattern of clockwork. Astronomers used Kepler to find an unusual patterns of transits of Kepler-413b.
Kostov said that based on the Kepler's data collected in 1,500 days, astronomers noticed three transits in the first 180 days, or a transit in every 66 days. Later they found 800 days without a single transit.
"After that, we saw five more transits in a row," said Kostov explaining Kepler-413b's unique behavior.
Unfortunately, Kepler-413b is uninhabitable since the seasons are erratic. In addition, the planet is too hot since it is orbiting near two dwarf stars that it cannot sustain liquids—the main prerequisite to be inhabitable. Moreover, Kepler-413b is like super Neptune, a giant gas planet of about 65 Earth masses, so there is no ground to stand.
HUBBLESITE | MAHARDIKA SATRIA HADI
