THE PLANETARY SYSTEM TO KIC 11442793: A COMPACT ANALOGUE TO THE SOLAR SYSTEM

Abstract

We announce the discovery of a planetary system with 7 transiting planets\naround a Kepler target, a current record for transiting systems. Planets b, c,\ne and f are reported for the first time in this work. Planets d, g and h were\npreviously reported in the literature (Batalha et al. 2013), although here we\nrevise their orbital parameters and validate their planetary nature. Planets h\nand g are gas giants and show strong dynamical interactions. The orbit of\nplanet g is perturbed in such way that its orbital period changes by 25.7h\nbetween two consecutive transits during the length of the observations, which\nis the largest such perturbation found so far. The rest of the planets also\nshow mutual interactions: planets d, e and f are super-Earths close to a mean\nmotion resonance chain (2:3:4), and planets b and c, with sizes below 2 Earth\nradii, are within 0.5% of the 4:5 mean motion resonance. This complex system\npresents some similarities to our Solar System, with small planets in inner\norbits and gas giants in outer orbits. It is, however, more compact. The outer\nplanet has an orbital distance around 1 AU, and the relative position of the\ngas giants is opposite to that of Jupiter and Saturn, which is closer to the\nexpected result of planet formation theories. The dynamical interactions\nbetween planets are also much richer.\n