Other Worlds

Other planets

Planets around the neutron star PSR B1257+12
(A. Wolszczan, Penn State University)

• PSR B1257+12 has three planets on 25, 66, 98-day, nearly coplanar orbits, with masses of 0.02, 3.9 and 4.2 M
• All three orbits almost fit within the orbit of Mercury
• Relative separations of the orbits are to sale wih those of Mercury, Venus and Earth
• Planets B and C are in a near 3:2 mean motion resonance
• The system is dynamically stable over > 1 Gyr timescale

previous   next