Planetologists have announced the discovery of the first system in which an exoplanet is moving in a spiral towards
Measuring the orbital decay of exoplanets is verychallenging task, scientists say. This process is very slow and gradual. For example, the orbital period of Kepler-1658b is decreasing at a rate of only about 131 ms per year. The discovery of this decline required several years of careful observation with three telescopes.
The researchers used the space telescopeKepler, instruments at the Palomar Observatory in Southern California, and the TESS satellite to record the transit of this planet across the disk of the star. The study showed that the interval between Kepler-1658b transits was slightly but steadily decreasing.
Although researchers do not yet fully understand allprocesses in this system. The root cause of the orbital decay experienced by Kepler-1658b is tides, the gravitational interaction between two rotating bodies (a planet and a star).
The star has developed to the point of its lifecycle when it began to expand. This accelerates the decay process of the orbit, making it easier to study it on a human timescale, the scientists say. A similar fate awaits the Sun at certain stages of evolution, they add.
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On the cover: an artistic illustration of the Kepler-1658 system. Image: Gabriel Perez Diaz/Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias