5-body dynamics in the Kepler-47 exoplanetary system: Predicting stable orbits of a third circumbinary planet

  • Published : 2014.10.13

Abstract

Kepler-47 is the first multi-body circumbinary planetary system detected by the Kepler space telescope. The two planets were detected by the transit method. In the discovery paper the authors report about the presence of an additional transit-like signal in their dataset which cannot be explained by a four-body (binary + 2 planets) system. Therefore it is likely that the unexplained signal could be due to a third planet. In this talk I will present recent results from a dynamical investigation of the five-body system (binary + 3 planets). We have applied the MEGNO technique to detect regions of quasi- or near quasi-periodic orbits of a hypothetical third planet. Quasi-periodic regions exists for a third planet and the long-term stability has been tested. Although the existence of a third planet is most likely to be confirmed from transit photometry we calculate transit-timing variation (TTV) signals due to the third planet which also can be used to infer its presence.

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