Solar system with 6 planets orbiting in-sync discovered in Milky Way

Geoff Bennett:

Astronomers have discovered a rare solar system with six planets moving completely in sync with one another, a perfect cosmic dance.

Estimated to be billions of years old, the formation 100 light years away may help unravel some mysteries of our solar system.

Science correspondent Miles O'Brien joins us now.

So, Miles, astronomers have found thousands of these so-called exoplanets since the first one was discovered back in 1995. What sets this discovery apart?

Miles O’Brien:

This one is pretty special, Geoff.

The idea that they found a star, a solar system, with six planets orbiting as if they were in harmony has really struck them as extremely unusual, almost to the edge of truly unique. They think what they found is essentially like going to a barn and finding a classic antique vehicle. It's just pristine. Nothing has touched it over these years, and it helps them understand a little bit better the origins of our very own solar system.

Geoff Bennett:

What do we know about the size and nature of these planets, Miles?

Miles O’Brien:

These planets are like Neptunes, a little bit smaller than Neptune, and they're all — just to put it in perspective, they're all in orbits that would be inside Mercury in our solar system, so orbits that are a matter of days around the star.

And the ratio of those orbits is exactly the same as you go out. As a matter of fact, they found a couple of inner planets. Then they found the outer planet. Then they did the math and said, you know what, we will probably find some planets here. And there they were.

Geoff Bennett:

So, as I mentioned, this formation is 100 light years away. What instruments did scientists use to even find it?

Miles O’Brien:

Well, there's two instruments involved.

There was a NASA instrument called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, or TESS. TESS has been in orbit for about five years, and it has been very busy. It has found no less than 7,000 planet candidates; 500-plus of them are confirmed, and it's just getting started as it looks all throughout the heavens.

So the planet-hunting business is very busy. There was also a European satellite called the CHaracterising ExOPlanet Satellite involved. Now, the follow-up will be with the James Webb Space Telescope. They will take a look at these six planets and try to characterize their atmosphere.

Is it a bunch of gas, hydrogen, or could there possibly be some water on those planets?

Geoff Bennett:

And what's the significance of finding these planets that are so in sync?

Miles O’Brien:

Well, it gives us an idea of what a solar system looks like maybe at the beginning.

Our solar system, we're in a tough neighborhood. We have been bounced around, asteroids have hit planets, and the planets have gotten way out of sync over the course of the many billions of years. This one apparently is in a very quiet corner of the cosmos and is just the way it was, evidently, when it was first created.

And that just has astronomers completely, well, not mystified, but they're quite curious and they want to continue looking at it and seeing what other instruments tell us.

Geoff Bennett:

It's fascinating stuff.

Miles O'Brien, thanks so much.

Miles O’Brien:

You're welcome, Geoff.