Kepler has finally found a Solar system that operates as our own does. 10,000 light years away from us lay a system that like us rotates around a vertical axis. In our Solar system the rotation of the sun is mimicked by the parallel rotation of its planets.
This is helping them to prove a theory that Hot Jupiter’s form in systems that are unlike this new system. Hot Jupiter’s have been found to exist only in systems where they are extremely close to their star and in an off-kilter sort of orbit. It is felt that because this has no orbital tilt and is not a hot Jupiter System that it is evidence to support the theory that only hot Jupiter planets are misaligned.
It is an odd way to prove something, but in the far reaches of space is the only avenue open to us at present. Besides if you remember from Science class one of the basic tenets has always been observation.
But this is where they lose me: “they” feel that this could implicate the onset of life in the universe requires both a stable climate suitable for life and the planet needs to have a stable orbit.
"We’ve been hungry for one like this, where it’s not exactly like the solar system, but at least it’s more normal, where the planets and the star are aligned with each other," says associate professor of physics at MIT Josh Winn.
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