Astronomers working with data from the Kepler telescope have for the first time been able to estimate the masses of planets based only on the information transmitted by the telescope. The researchers' article appeared in the journal Science . New Scientist writes briefly about the work.

Kepler, launched into space in May 2009, searches for extrasolar planets, or exoplanets, using the transit method. The telescope constantly “looks” at the same area of the sky and monitors the brightness of the stars (in total, Kepler observes about 4.5 million stars). If planets revolve around a star, then, as they pass through the disk of the star, they will block part of its radiation. By estimating the dimming parameters of a star, scientists can determine characteristics of exoplanets, such as their size and orbital period. You can read more about Kepler's work here .

Until now, to determine the mass of the planets found by Kepler, specialists needed additional information, which they received from other telescopes. Scientists collected data on the gravitational influence of planets on the “host” star - the movement of the planet leads to periodic changes in the position of the star.

The authors of the new study analyzed data on planets orbiting the star Kepler-9, which is 2 thousand light years away from the Solar System. with each other Scientists have determined the orbital periods of the two planets Kepler-9b and Kepler-9c - it turned out that they are 19.2 and 38.9 days, respectively (the planets are in so-called orbital resonance ).

Using the data collected by Kepler, experts determined that the times during which the planets complete one revolution around the star are not constant - the shifts occur due to the mutual gravitational influence of the planets on each other. Based on the available data, astronomers have calculated that the masses of Kepler-9b and Kepler-9c are slightly larger than the mass of Saturn. In addition, scientists do not rule out that there is a third planet in the Kepler-9 star system with a mass of about 1.5 Earth masses.

Recently, information transmitted by the Kepler telescope became the reason for a scandal - the media circulated the message that the telescope had probably discovered 140 Earth-like planets. Later, the author of this message issued a refutation of these rumors .

Kepler weighed two exoplanets for the first time