New Planet for Gliese 876

[renormalised]

Earlier this year (June 22), astronomers had announced the discovery of a new 4th planet ("e") for the star Gliese 876, which is a red dwarf in Aquarius, at a distance of 15.2ly. The planet is an Uranus sized world that orbits its parent star in 124 days, near circular orbit. Along with the other two giant planets in the system, it undergoes an orbital resonance of 4:2:1 and every 124 days the planets line up in an almost triple conjunction.

http://arxiv.org/abs/1006.4244

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2010/07/scienceshot-planets-sing-in-thre.html

This also happens to be the star that is part of my second assignment:):)

[CraigS]

That's a bit of a co-incidence, 4:2:1, isn't it ?
How does that happen ?
(Apart from 42 being the answer to everything and also containing the digits 4 and 2, that is).
:)

[pvelez]

Carl

Thanks for posting

What's the story with your assignment?

Pete

[renormalised]

Gravitational interactions between the three planets.

[renormalised]

It's the second part of my assignment, a report on the star.

I've nearly finished the first part of the assignment. The part on Gliese 876 shouldn't take too long.

Got all the information I need for it.