The newly discovered star system is one of the highlights of the new catalog from the Kepler telescope, which contains nearly 4,400 planet candidates and more than 700 so-called multiplanetary systems.
But what makes Kepler-385 special is that it is one of the few star systems with more than six confirmed planets or planet candidates.
Stifling hot worlds
It also appears that all the planets in the star system are called super-Earths, which are larger than Earth but smaller than ice giants like Uranus and Neptune.
However, each of them receives more radiation from its host star than any other planet in our solar system.
The astronomers’ analyzes also show that the two innermost planets, Kepler-385 b and c, are likely rocky planets, slightly larger than Earth, with thin atmospheres.
The other five planets are roughly twice the size of Earth and surrounded by a thick atmosphere.
The Kepler Space Telescope stopped working in 2018, but during its nine years in space it collected a lot of data that astronomers are still busy analyzing.
One goal was to dive deeper and make new discoveries in some of the many recently discovered star systems, such as Kepler-385.
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