A tilted solar system: Planets orbit at an angle of 45 degrees!

Astronomers looking at a data from NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope have discovered a “tilted” solar system – a solar system where two of the planets orbit their star at a 45 degree angle. The two planets are orbiting the star currently known as Kepler-56, which is about 2,800 light years from Earth. Kepler-56 is a red giant that has about twice the diameter of our sun but is only about 30 percent more massive.

Most solar systems discovered so far – including our own – feature planets that orbit their star in roughly the same plane as the star’s equator. Earth, for example, orbits the sun at an angle that’s only about 7.2 degrees above that plane. That’s because most solar systems form from a giant spinning disc of dust and gas that, through the influence of gravity, eventually becomes a star, its planets, its asteroids, etc.

The two planets appear to be held in their tilted orbit because of the gravitational pull of a much larger planet in the same solar system, which is located on the outer edge of the system. That planet  is “tugging” on the other two with its gravity. The gravitational pull of the massive outer planet and the sun keep the two planets at their tilted orbits.

The two planets also have a “resonance” with each other that helps keep their orbits stable – one of the planets circles the star almost exactly twice as fast, which helps keep the two planets in the same orbital plane.

To read more about the discovery, click here.