Using NASA’s prolonged Kepler mission, known as K2, astronomers have discovered a new Neptune-sized planet in a binary star system in the Hyades open cluster.
The newly found exoworld, designated K2-nnnA b, is the first known Neptune-sized planet in a binary system within an open cluster. The finding was reported Sept. 29 in a paper published on the arXiv pre-print server.
K2-nnnA b was initially spotted during K2’s Campaign 13, conducted between March 8 and May 27, 2017. During this campaign, a team of astronomers led by David R. Ciardi of the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) observed a binary system named EPIC 247589423 consisting of a K-dwarf star and a late M-dwarf companion. As a result, the researchers identified a transit signal in the light curve of the binary.
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