Astronomers have confirmed that a third major planet is orbit the two ace at the center of the Kepler-47 system . This discovery gives us more selective information about the dynamics of binary terrestrial system . This is very important consider that about one-half of all Sun - alike superstar have a fellow traveller .

The first two planet , known as Kepler-47b and Kepler-47c , were disclose in 2012 . A third candidate man was announced in 2013 , but it took further analysis to affirm it . As reported inThe Astronomical Journal , the third planet , Kepler-47d , sits in between the other two .

“ We consider a wind of a third planet back in 2012 , but with only one transportation system we needed more information to be sure , ” lead author Jerome Orosz , from San Diego State University , state in astatement . “ With an extra passage , the planet ’s orbital menstruum could be determined , and we were then able to uncover more transit that were hidden in the stochasticity in the former data point . ”

All three planet have scurvy densities ( they would “ float ” on water ) and are smaller than Saturn . They orbit the two stars severally in 49 , 187 , and 303 day , while the whiz themselves orb around each other every 7.45 day . The larger star has roughly the same   deal as our Sun , while the smaller has about a third of its hoi polloi .

The two outermost planets are tightly packed together , so there is no prospect that another world is orbiting between them . They are also quite temperate , and optimistic predictions put them in the system ’s inhabitable geographical zone . The major planet also orbit on the same plane and in nearly orbitual orbit , which suggests that if ( or when ) the planet move about in the yesteryear , they did so mildly .

" This work progress on one of the Kepler ’s most interesting discoveries : that systems of closely pack , humbled - density planet are extremely rough-cut in our galaxy , ” added Jonathan Fortney , from the   University of California , Santa Cruz , who was not part of the study . “ Kepler 47 shows that whatever appendage forms these planets – an outcome that did not fall out in our Solar System – is common to single - star and circumbinary erratic systems . "

The arrangement is located 3,340 light - years from Earth in the constellation of Cygnus , the swan .