An astronomy student working with an Australian Astronomical Observatory (AAO) astronomer has uncovered evidence of a new planet orbiting a binary star (two stars that orbit a common centre of mass). Adding interest to this discovery is the observation that the planet orbits the stars on a tilt - an example of the weird and wonderful diversity of the Universe. The binary star, KIC 5095269, system was first observed by NASA's Kepler space telescope. Read more
Title: Evidence for a planetary mass third body orbiting the binary star KIC 5095269 Author: A. K. Getley, B. Carter, R. King, S. O'Toole
In this paper, we report the evidence for a planetary mass body orbiting the close binary star KIC 5095269. This detection arose from a search for eclipse timing variations among the more than 2,000 eclipsing binaries observed by Kepler. Light curve and periodic eclipse time variations have been analysed using Systemic and a custom Binary Eclipse Timings code based on the Transit Analysis Package which indicates a 7.70±0.08MJup object orbiting every 237.7±0.1d around a 1.2 solar mass primary and 0.51 solar mass secondary in an 18.6d orbit. A dynamical integration over 10^7 years suggests a stable orbital configuration. Radial velocity observations are recommended to confirm the properties of the binary star components and the planetary mass of the companion.