While analyzing data from the recently decommissioned Kepler Telescope, scientists discovered a solar system with two planetary objects orbiting 45 degrees off, but it does not seem to matter, NBC News reported.
It appears to work for this system because the two objects orbit their host star, dubbed Kepler-56, in perfect harmony. There also seems to be gravitational influence from a third object aside from the host star.
Kepler detected stars and other planetary objects by spotting trademark signals like the dimming of light when a planet passes in front of its host star. It was retired in August because the second of four rotating wheels broke. With the telescope rendered useless, scientists involved in the $600 million project instead diverted their attention to analyzing data the telescope already retrieved.
"This is a new level of detail about the architecture of a planetary system outside our solar system," Steve Kawaler, an Iowa State University professor of physics and astronomy, said in a press release. "These studies allow us to draw a detailed picture of a distant system that provides a new and critical test of our understanding of how these very alien solar systems are structured."
Kawaler is a co-author of a paper detailing the discovery published in the current issue of the journal Science.
Kepler-56 is about 3,000 light years away from Earth and has a mass 30 percent greater than our sun and radius four times bigger. Kawaler said he also helped the team of scientists determine the tilt of the rotation axis of the star by analyzing its changes in brightness. From Earth's line of sight, the axis is tilted 45 degrees.
The researchers concluded that Kepler-56's more massive outer planets maintain the tilted orbit with their gravitational influence.
"It issues a continuous tug on the orbit of the smaller ones, pulling them into their inclined orbits," Kawaler said.
