K2-24 (also known as EPIC 203771098) is a

metal-rich In astronomy, metallicity is the abundance of elements present in an object that are heavier than hydrogen and helium. Most of the normal physical matter in the Universe is either hydrogen or helium, and astronomers use the word ''"metals"'' as ...

G3-type

main sequence In astronomy, the main sequence is a continuous and distinctive band of stars that appears on plots of stellar color versus brightness. These color-magnitude plots are known as Hertzsprung–Russell diagrams after their co-developers, Ejnar Her ...

star larger and more massive than the Sun, located away in the constellation

Scorpius Scorpius is a zodiac constellation located in the Southern celestial hemisphere, where it sits near the center of the Milky Way, between Libra to the west and Sagittarius to the east. Scorpius is an ancient constellation that pre-dates the G ...

. Two confirmed transiting

exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...

s are known to orbit this star. An attempt to detect stellar companions using

adaptive optics Adaptive optics (AO) is a technology used to improve the performance of optical systems by reducing the effect of incoming wavefront distortions by deforming a mirror in order to compensate for the distortion. It is used in astronomical tel ...

imaging at the

Keck telescope The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and when co ...

was negative however later observations using

lucky imaging Lucky imaging (also called lucky exposures) is one form of speckle imaging used for astrophotography. Speckle imaging techniques use a high-speed camera with exposure times short enough (100 ms or less) so that the changes in the Earth's atm ...

at the Danish 1.54 m telescope at

La Silla Observatory La Silla Observatory is an astronomical observatory in Chile with three telescopes built and operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). Several other telescopes are located at the site and are partly maintained by ESO. The observatory is ...

detected a possible companion at 3.8

arcseconds A minute of arc, arcminute (arcmin), arc minute, or minute arc, denoted by the symbol , is a unit of angular measurement equal to of one degree. Since one degree is of a turn (or complete rotation), one minute of arc is of a turn. The na ...

distance from K2-24. This candidate companion being over 8 magnitudes fainter than K2-24 and with a

color temperature Color temperature is the color of light emitted by an idealized opaque, non-reflective body at a particular temperature measured in kelvins. The color temperature scale is used to categorize the color of light emitted by other light sources ...

of , is inconsistent with a bound main sequence companion.

Planetary system

Discovery

Erik A. Petigura and team analyzed data obtained from the

Kepler space telescope The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orbi ...

during its observation of the K2 Campaign 2 field. They reported the discovery and confirmation of both planets b and c. The Planetary signals were independently detected by Andrew Vanderburg and collaborators.

Characteristics

The two known planets in this system have radii equal to 5.4 and 7.5 times that of the Earth. This places both planets radii between that of

Uranus Uranus is the seventh planet from the Sun. Its name is a reference to the Greek god of the sky, Uranus (Caelus), who, according to Greek mythology, was the great-grandfather of Ares (Mars), grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter) and father of Cronu ...

and

Saturn Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; ...

, a range not present within the

Solar System The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...

. With

orbital period The orbital period (also revolution period) is the amount of time a given astronomical object takes to complete one orbit around another object. In astronomy, it usually applies to planets or asteroids orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting planets ...

s of 20.9 days and 42.4 days, the planets are within 1% of the 2:1 mean-motion resonance. The low observed eccentricities and near orbital resonance provide evidence regarding the formation and evolution of the system, suggesting that they could possibly have resulted from gravitational interactions with a

protoplanetary disk A protoplanetary disk is a rotating circumstellar disc of dense gas and dust surrounding a young newly formed star, a T Tauri star, or Herbig Ae/Be star. The protoplanetary disk may also be considered an accretion disk for the star itself, ...

. K2-24c at 15.4 earth masses is significantly lighter than K2-24b's 19 Earth masses despite being a larger planet. It is estimated that K2-24b's atmosphere makes up 26% of its mass while K2-24c's atmosphere makes up 52%. The current model of core-nucleated accretion predicts that runaway accretion should occur when a planet reaches approximately 50% atmosphere by mass, this makes K2-24c a potential challenge to the model. A transit observation of K2-24b with the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ver ...

Wide Field Camera 3 The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is the Hubble Space Telescope's last and most technologically advanced instrument to take images in the visible spectrum. It was installed as a replacement for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 during the first ...

suggested the presence of ammonia, in a high abundance, but did not find evidence for water.

References

External links

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia entry for K2-24b

The Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia entry for K2-24c
{{Scorpius G-type main-sequence stars Scorpius Planetary systems with two confirmed planets Planetary transit variables