Discovery of two New Planets beyond our Solar system using NASA K2 mission data
Scientists of the Arthur C Clarke Institute for Modern Technologies have discovered two planets orbiting around a star located 1133 light years from the earth in the constellation Virgo. This is the first ever planetary system discovered by Sri Lankan scientists. Mr.Mahesh Herath , Mr. Saraj Gunasekera and Dr. Chandana Jayaratne of University of Colombo and 11 other foreign scientists has contributed to this discovery.
What makes this system stand out among other planetary systems?
This system contains one of the very few confirmed planets with an orbital period above 50 days among transiting Exoplanets (65.5 days).
The first planet being a sub Neptune very close to the host star (about 0.1 AU) is a rare occurrence in planetary formation. The large distance between the two planets, and their near-identical sizes may be an indicator that the first planet could have migrated inwards to its current position after forming near the second planet, far away from the host star.
The second planet lies close to the inner boundary of the habitable zone for this system.