During the past two decades, astronomers have discovered 300 “hot Jupiters,” but for the first time they’ve found one that has two close-in planetary companions.
Scientists made the startling discovery using data collected by the K2 mission, an extension of the Kepler space telescope mission.
“This is really exciting,” says Juliette Becker, a graduate student in astronomy at the University of Michigan and lead author of a paper highlighting the discovery. “People have looked for these planets and have looked in data that exists for hot Jupiters for years and nothing has come up. So people took it to mean that it was not possible to have these close-in planet companions.”
Hans Schwengeler, a citizen scientist, was the first person to spot the possibility of a planet companion in the WASP-47 system. He made note of it in a public forum called Planet Hunters.
