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Explore Webb Science James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) NASA Webb Looks at… Webb News Latest News Latest Images Webb’s Blog Awards X (offsite – login reqd) Instagram (offsite – login reqd) Facebook (offsite- login reqd) Youtube (offsite) Overview About Who is James Webb? Fact Sheet Impacts+Benefits FAQ Webb Timeline Science Overview and Goals Early Universe Galaxies Over Time Star Lifecycle Other Worlds Science Explainers Observatory Overview Launch Deployment Orbit Mirrors Sunshield Instrument: NIRCam Instrument: MIRI Instrument: NIRSpec Instrument: FGS/NIRISS Optical Telescope Element Backplane Spacecraft Bus Instrument Module Multimedia About Webb Images Images Videos What is Webb Observing? 3d Webb in 3d Solar System Podcasts Webb Image Sonifications Webb’s First Images Team International Team People Of Webb More For the Media For Scientists For Educators For Fun/Learning 6 Min Read NASA Webb Looks at Earth-Sized, Habitable-Zone Exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets. Full image and caption shown below. Credits:
Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Scientists are in the midst of observing the exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Careful analysis of the results so far presents several potential scenarios for what the planet’s atmosphere and surface may be like, as NASA science missions lay key groundwork to answer the question, “are we alone in the universe?”
“Webb’s infrared instruments are giving us more detail than we’ve ever had access to before, and the initial four observations we’ve been able to make of planet e are showing us what we will have to work with when the rest of the information comes in,” said Néstor Espinoza of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, a principal investigator on the research team. Two scientific papers detailing the team’s initial results are published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Image A: Trappist-1 e (Artist’s Concept)
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets, all of which have been observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has found no definitive signs of an atmosphere around any of these worlds yet. Artwork: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Of the seven Earth-sized worlds orbiting the red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1, planet e is of particular interest because it orbits the star at a distance where water on the surface is theoretically possible — not too hot, not too cold — but only if the planet has an atmosphere. That’s where Webb comes in. Researchers aimed the telescope’s powerful NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) instrument at the system as planet e transited, or passed in front of, its star. Starlight passing through the planet’s atmosphere, if there is one, will be partially absorbed, and the corresponding dips in the light spectrum that reaches Webb will tell astronomers what chemicals are found there. With each additional transit, the atmospheric contents become clearer as more data is collected.
Primary atmosphere unlikely
Though multiple possibilities remain open for planet e because only four transits have been analyzed so far, the researchers feel confident that the planet does not still have its primary, or original, atmosphere. TRAPPIST-1 is a very active star, with frequent flares, so it is not surprising to researchers that any hydrogen-helium atmosphere with which the planet may have formed would have been stripped off by stellar radiation. However many planets, including Earth, build up a heavier secondary atmosphere after losing their primary atmosphere. It is possible that planet e was never able to do this and does not have a secondary atmosphere. Yet researchers say there is an equal chance there is an atmosphere, and the team developed novel approaches to working with Webb’s data to determine planet e’s potential atmospheres and surface environments.
World of (fewer) possibilities
The researchers say it is unlikely that the atmosphere of TRAPPIST-1 e is dominated by carbon dioxide, analogous to the thick atmosphere of Venus and the thin atmosphere of Mars. However, the researchers also are careful to note that there are no direct parallels with our solar system.
“TRAPPIST-1 is a very different star from our Sun, and so the planetary system around it is also very different, which challenges both our observational and theoretical assumptions,” said team member Nikole Lewis, an associate professor of astronomy at Cornell University.
If there is liquid water on TRAPPIST-1 e, the researchers say it would be accompanied by a greenhouse effect, in which various gases, particularly carbon dioxide, keep the atmosphere stable and the planet warm.
“A little greenhouse effect goes a long way,” said Lewis, and the measurements do not rule out adequate carbon dioxide to sustain some water on the surface. According to the team’s analysis, the water could take the form of a global ocean, or cover a smaller area of the planet where the star is at perpetual noon, surrounded by ice. This would be possible because, due to the TRAPPIST-1 planets’ sizes and close orbits to their star, it is thought that they all are tidally locked, with one side always facing the star and one side always in darkness.
Image B: TRAPPIST-1 e Transmission Spectrum (NIRSpec)
This graphic compares data collected by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) with computer models of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with (blue) and without (orange) an atmosphere. Narrow colored bands show the most likely locations of data points for each model. Illustration: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) Innovative new method
Espinoza and co-principal investigator Natalie Allen of Johns Hopkins University are leading a team that is currently making 15 additional observations of planet e, with an innovative twist. The scientists are timing the observations so that Webb catches both planets b and e transiting the star one right after the other. After previous Webb observations of planet b, the planet orbiting closest to TRAPPIST-1, scientists are fairly confident it is a bare rock without an atmosphere. This means that signals detected during planet b’s transit can be attributed to the star only, and because planet e transits at nearly the same time, there will be less complication from the star’s variability. Scientists plan to compare the data from both planets, and any indications of chemicals that show up only in planet e’s spectrum can be attributed to its atmosphere.
“We are really still in the early stages of learning what kind of amazing science we can do with Webb. It’s incredible to measure the details of starlight around Earth-sized planets 40 light-years away and learn what it might be like there, if life could be possible there,” said Ana Glidden, a post-doctoral researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, who led the research on possible atmospheres for planet e. “We’re in a new age of exploration that’s very exciting to be a part of,” she said.
The four transits of TRAPPIST-1 e analyzed in the new papers published today were collected by the JWST Telescope Scientist Team’s DREAMS (Deep Reconnaissance of Exoplanet Atmospheres using Multi-instrument Spectroscopy) collaboration.
The James Webb Space Telescope is the world’s premier space science observatory. Webb is solving mysteries in our solar system, looking beyond to distant worlds around other stars, and probing the mysterious structures and origins of our universe and our place in it. Webb is an international program led by NASA with its partners, ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency).
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Trappist-1 e (Artist’s Concept)
This artist’s concept shows the volatile red dwarf star TRAPPIST-1 and its four most closely orbiting planets, all of which have been observed by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Webb has found no definitive signs of an atmosphere around any of these worlds yet.
TRAPPIST-1 e Transmission Spectrum (NIRSpec)
This graphic compares data collected by Webb’s NIRSpec (Near-Infrared Spectrograph) with computer models of exoplanet TRAPPIST-1 e with (blue) and without (orange) an atmosphere. Narrow colored bands show the most likely locations of data points for each model.
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Last Updated Sep 08, 2025 Editor Marty McCoy Contact Laura Betz laura.e.betz@nasa.gov Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Contact Media Laura Betz
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
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laura.e.betz@nasa.gov
Leah Ramsay
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
Hannah Braun
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, Maryland
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The science paper by N. Espinoza et al. The science paper by A. Glidden et al. JWST Telescope Science Team
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This artist’s concept animation shows the orbital dynamics of KOI-134 system which, in 2025, a paper revealed to have two planets: KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c. NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC) The Planets
KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c
This artist’s concept shows the KOI-134 system which, in 2025, a paper revealed to have two planets: KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c. NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC) The Discovery
A new investigation into old Kepler data has revealed that a planetary system once thought to house zero planets actually has two planets which orbit their star in a unique style, like an old-fashioned merry-go-round.
Key Facts
The KOI-134 system contains two planets which orbit their star in a peculiar fashion on two different orbital planes, with one planet exhibiting significant variation in transit times. This is the first-discovered system of its kind.
Details
Over a decade ago, scientists used NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope to observe the KOI-134 system and thought that it might have a planet orbiting, but they deemed this planet candidate to be a false positive, because its transits (or passes in front of its star) were not lining up as expected. These transits were so abnormal that the planet was actually weeded out through an automated system as a false positive before it could be analyzed further.
However, NASA’s commitment to openly sharing scientific data means that researchers can constantly revisit old observations to make new discoveries. In this new study, researchers re-analyzed this Kepler data on KOI-134 and confirmed that not only is the “false positive” actually a real planet, but the system has two planets and some really interesting orbital dynamics!
First, the “false positive” planet, named KOI-134 b, was confirmed to be a warm Jupiter (or a warm planet of a similar size to Jupiter). Through this analysis, researchers uncovered that the reason this planet eluded confirmation previously is because it experiences what are called transit timing variations (TTVs), or small differences in a planet’s transit across its star that can make its transit “early” or “late” because the planet is being pushed or pulled by the gravity from another planet which was also revealed in this study. Researchers estimate that KOI-134 b transits across its star as much as 20 hours “late” or “early,” which is a significant variation. In fact, it was so significant that it’s the reason why the planet wasn’t confirmed in initial observations.
As these TTVs are caused by the gravitational interaction with another planet, this discovery also revealed a planetary sibling: KOI-134 c. Through studying this system in simulations that include these TTVs, the team found that KOI-134 c is a planet slightly smaller than Saturn and closer to its star than KOI-134 b.
This artist’s concept shows the KOI-134 system which, in 2025, a paper revealed to have two planets: KOI-134 b and KOI-134 c. NASA/JPL-Caltech/K. Miller (Caltech/IPAC) KOI-134 c previously eluded observation because it orbits on a tilted orbital plane, a different plane from KOI-134 b, and this tilted orbit prevents the planet from transiting its star. The two orbital planes of these planets are about 15 degrees different from one another, also known as a mutual inclination of 15 degrees, which is significant. Due to the gravitational push and pull between these two planets, their orbital planes also tilt back and forth.
Another interesting feature of this planetary system is something called resonance. These two planets have a 2 to 1 resonance, meaning within the same time that one planet completes one orbit, the other completes two orbits. In this case, KOI-134 b has an orbital period (the time it takes a planet to complete one orbit) of about 67 days, which is twice the orbital period of KOI-134 c, which orbits every 33-34 days.
Between the separate orbital planes tilting back and forth, the TTVs, and the resonance, the two planets orbit their star in a pattern that resembles two wooden ponies bobbing up and down as they circle around on an old-fashioned merry go round.
Fun Facts
While this system started as a false positive with Kepler, this re-analysis of the data reveals a vibrant system with two planets. In fact, this is the first-ever discovered compact, multiplanetary system that isn’t flat, has such a significant TTV, and experiences orbital planes tilting back and forth.
Also, most planetary systems do not have high mutual inclinations between close planet pairs. In addition to being a rarity, mutual inclinations like this are also not often measured because of challenges within the observation process. So, having measurements like this of a significant mutual inclination in a system, as well as measurements of resonance and TTVs, provides a clear picture of dynamics within a planetary system which we are not always able to see.
The Discoverers
A team of scientists led by Emma Nabbie of the University of Southern Queensland published a paper on June 27 on their discovery, “A high mutual inclination system around KOI-134 revealed by transit timing variations,” in the journal “Nature Astronomy.” The observations described in this paper and used in simulations in this paper were made by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and the paper included collaboration and contributions from institutions including the University of Geneva, University of La Laguna, Purple Mountain Observatory, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Southern Queensland, and NASA’s retired Kepler Space Telescope.
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Artist’s concept of the star HIP 67522 with a flare erupting toward an orbiting planet, HIP 67522 b. A second planet, HIP 67522 c, is shown in the background. Janine Fohlmeister, Leibniz Institute for Astrophysics Potsdam The Discovery
A giant planet some 400 light-years away, HIP 67522 b, orbits its parent star so tightly that it appears to cause frequent flares from the star’s surface, heating and inflating the planet’s atmosphere.
Key Facts
On planet Earth, “space weather” caused by solar flares might disrupt radio communications, or even damage satellites. But Earth’s atmosphere protects us from truly harmful effects, and we orbit the Sun at a respectable distance, out of reach of the flares themselves.
Not so for planet HIP 67522 b. A gas giant in a young star system – just 17 million years old – the planet takes only seven days to complete one orbit around its star. A “year,” in other words, lasts barely as long as a week on Earth. That places the planet perilously close to the star. Worse, the star is of a type known to flare – especially in their youth.
In this case, the proximity of the planet appears to result in fairly frequent flaring.
Details
The star and the planet form a powerful but likely a destructive bond. In a manner not yet fully understood, the planet hooks into the star’s magnetic field, triggering flares on the star’s surface; the flares whiplash energy back to the planet. Combined with other high-energy radiation from the star, the flare-induced heating appears to have increased the already steep inflation of the planet’s atmosphere, giving HIP 67522 b a diameter comparable to our own planet Jupiter despite having just 5% of Jupiter’s mass.
This might well mean that the planet won’t stay in the Jupiter size-range for long. One effect of being continually pummeled with intense radiation could be a loss of atmosphere over time. In another 100 million years, that could shrink the planet to the status of a “hot Neptune,” or, with a more radical loss of atmosphere, even a “sub-Neptune,” a planet type smaller than Neptune that is common in our galaxy but lacking in our solar system.
Fun Facts
Four hundred light-years is much too far away to capture images of stellar flares striking orbiting planets. So how did a science team led by Netherlands astronomer Ekaterina Ilin discover this was happening? They used space-borne telescopes, NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite) and the European Space Agency’s CHEOPS (CHaracterising ExoPlanets Telescope), to track flares on the star, and also to trace the path of the planet’s orbit.
Both telescopes use the “transit” method to determine the diameter of a planet and the time it takes to orbit its star. The transit is a kind of mini-eclipse. As the planet crosses the star’s face, it causes a tiny dip in starlight reaching the telescope. But the same observation method also picks up sudden stabs of brightness from the star – the stellar flares. Combining these observations over five years’ time and applying rigorous statistical analysis, the science team revealed that the planet is zapped with six times more flares than it would be without that magnetic connection.
The Discoverers
A team of scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, led by Ekaterina Ilin of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, published their paper on the planet-star connection, “Close-in planet induces flares on its host star,” in the journal Nature on July 2, 2025.
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Explore This Section Exoplanets Home Exoplanets Overview Exoplanets Facts Types of Exoplanets Stars What is the Universe Search for Life The Big Questions Are We Alone? Can We Find Life? The Habitable Zone Why We Search Target Star Catalog Discoveries Discoveries Dashboard How We Find and Characterize Missions People Exoplanet Catalog Immersive The Exoplaneteers Exoplanet Travel Bureau 5 Ways to Find a Planet Strange New Worlds Universe of Monsters Galaxy of Horrors News Stories Blog Resources Get Involved Glossary Eyes on Exoplanets Exoplanet Watch More Multimedia ExEP View the full article
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7 min read
A New Alloy is Enabling Ultra-Stable Structures Needed for Exoplanet Discovery
A unique new material that shrinks when it is heated and expands when it is cooled could help enable the ultra-stable space telescopes that future NASA missions require to search for habitable worlds.
Advancements in material technologies are needed to meet the science needs of the next great observatories. These observatories will strive to find, identify, and study exoplanets and their ability to support life. Credit: NASA JPL One of the goals of NASA’s Astrophysics Division is to determine whether we are alone in the universe. NASA’s astrophysics missions seek to answer this question by identifying planets beyond our solar system (exoplanets) that could support life. Over the last two decades, scientists have developed ways to detect atmospheres on exoplanets by closely observing stars through advanced telescopes. As light passes through a planet’s atmosphere or is reflected or emitted from a planet’s surface, telescopes can measure the intensity and spectra (i.e., “color”) of the light, and can detect various shifts in the light caused by gases in the planetary atmosphere. By analyzing these patterns, scientists can determine the types of gasses in the exoplanet’s atmosphere.
Decoding these shifts is no easy task because the exoplanets appear very near their host stars when we observe them, and the starlight is one billion times brighter than the light from an Earth-size exoplanet. To successfully detect habitable exoplanets, NASA’s future Habitable Worlds Observatory will need a contrast ratio of one to one billion (1:1,000,000,000).
Achieving this extreme contrast ratio will require a telescope that is 1,000 times more stable than state-of-the-art space-based observatories like NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and its forthcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. New sensors, system architectures, and materials must be integrated and work in concert for future mission success. A team from the company ALLVAR is collaborating with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to demonstrate how integration of a new material with unique negative thermal expansion characteristics can help enable ultra-stable telescope structures.
Material stability has always been a limiting factor for observing celestial phenomena. For decades, scientists and engineers have been working to overcome challenges such as micro-creep, thermal expansion, and moisture expansion that detrimentally affect telescope stability. The materials currently used for telescope mirrors and struts have drastically improved the dimensional stability of the great observatories like Webb and Roman, but as indicated in the Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics 2020 developed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, they still fall short of the 10 picometer level stability over several hours that will be required for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. For perspective, 10 picometers is roughly 1/10th the diameter of an atom.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope sits atop the support structure and instrument payloads. The long black struts holding the telescope’s secondary mirror will contribute roughly 30% of the wave front error while the larger support structure underneath the primary mirror will contribute another 30%.
Credit: NASA/Chris Gunn
Funding from NASA and other sources has enabled this material to transition from the laboratory to the commercial scale. ALLVAR received NASA Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) funding to scale and integrate a new alloy material into telescope structure demonstrations for potential use on future NASA missions like the Habitable Worlds Observatory. This alloy shrinks when heated and expands when cooled—a property known as negative thermal expansion (NTE). For example, ALLVAR Alloy 30 exhibits a -30 ppm/°C coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) at room temperature. This means that a 1-meter long piece of this NTE alloy will shrink 0.003 mm for every 1 °C increase in temperature. For comparison, aluminum expands at +23 ppm/°C.
While other materials expand while heated and contract when cooled, ALLVAR Alloy 30 exhibits a negative thermal expansion, which can compensate for the thermal expansion mismatch of other materials. The thermal strain versus temperature is shown for 6061 Aluminum, A286 Stainless Steel, Titanium 6Al-4V, Invar 36, and ALLVAR Alloy 30.
Because it shrinks when other materials expand, ALLVAR Alloy 30 can be used to strategically compensate for the expansion and contraction of other materials. The alloy’s unique NTE property and lack of moisture expansion could enable optic designers to address the stability needs of future telescope structures. Calculations have indicated that integrating ALLVAR Alloy 30 into certain telescope designs could improve thermal stability up to 200 times compared to only using traditional materials like aluminum, titanium, Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymers (CFRPs), and the nickel–iron alloy, Invar.
The hexapod assembly with six ALLVAR Alloy struts was measured for long-term stability. The stability of the individual struts and the hexapod assembly were measured using interferometry at the University of Florida’s Institute for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics. The struts were found to have a length noise well below the proposed target for the success criteria for the project. Credit: (left) ALLVAR and (right) Simon F. Barke, Ph.D. To demonstrate that negative thermal expansion alloys can enable ultra-stable structures, the ALLVAR team developed a hexapod structure to separate two mirrors made of a commercially available glass ceramic material with ultra-low thermal expansion properties. Invar was bonded to the mirrors and flexures made of Ti6Al4V—a titanium alloy commonly used in aerospace applications—were attached to the Invar. To compensate for the positive CTEs of the Invar and Ti6Al4V components, an NTE ALLVAR Alloy 30 tube was used between the Ti6Al4V flexures to create the struts separating the two mirrors. The natural positive thermal expansion of the Invar and Ti6Al4V components is offset by the negative thermal expansion of the NTE alloy struts, resulting in a structure with an effective zero thermal expansion.
The stability of the structure was evaluated at the University of Florida Institute for High Energy Physics and Astrophysics. The hexapod structure exhibited stability well below the 100 pm/√Hz target and achieved 11 pm/√Hz. This first iteration is close to the 10 pm stability required for the future Habitable Worlds Observatory. A paper and presentation made at the August 2021 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers conference provides details about this analysis.
Furthermore, a series of tests run by NASA Marshall showed that the ultra-stable struts were able to achieve a near-zero thermal expansion that matched the mirrors in the above analysis. This result translates into less than a 5 nm root mean square (rms) change in the mirror’s shape across a 28K temperature change.
The ALLVAR enabled Ultra-Stable Hexapod Assembly undergoing Interferometric Testing between 293K and 265K (right). On the left, the Root Mean Square (RMS) changes in the mirror’s surface shape are visually represented. The three roughly circular red areas are caused by the thermal expansion mismatch of the invar bonding pads with the ZERODUR mirror, while the blue and green sections show little to no changes caused by thermal expansion. The surface diagram shows a less than 5 nanometer RMS change in mirror figure. Credit: NASA’s X-Ray and Cryogenic Facility [XRCF] Beyond ultra-stable structures, the NTE alloy technology has enabled enhanced passive thermal switch performance and has been used to remove the detrimental effects of temperature changes on bolted joints and infrared optics. These applications could impact technologies used in other NASA missions. For example, these new alloys have been integrated into the cryogenic sub-assembly of Roman’s coronagraph technology demonstration. The addition of NTE washers enabled the use of pyrolytic graphite thermal straps for more efficient heat transfer. ALLVAR Alloy 30 is also being used in a high-performance passive thermal switch incorporated into the UC Berkeley Space Science Laboratory’s Lunar Surface Electromagnetics Experiment-Night (LuSEE Night) project aboard Firefly Aerospace’s Blue Ghost Mission 2, which will be delivered to the Moon through NASA’s CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. The NTE alloys enabled smaller thermal switch size and greater on-off heat conduction ratios for LuSEE Night.
Through another recent NASA SBIR effort, the ALLVAR team worked with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to develop detailed datasets of ALLVAR Alloy 30 material properties. These large datasets include statistically significant material properties such as strength, elastic modulus, fatigue, and thermal conductivity. The team also collected information about less common properties like micro-creep and micro-yield. With these properties characterized, ALLVAR Alloy 30 has cleared a major hurdle towards space-material qualification.
As a spinoff of this NASA-funded work, the team is developing a new alloy with tunable thermal expansion properties that can match other materials or even achieve zero CTE. Thermal expansion mismatch causes dimensional stability and force-load issues that can impact fields such as nuclear engineering, quantum computing, aerospace and defense, optics, fundamental physics, and medical imaging. The potential uses for this new material will likely extend far beyond astronomy. For example, ALLVAR developed washers and spacers, are now commercially available to maintain consistent preloads across extreme temperature ranges in both space and terrestrial environments. These washers and spacers excel at counteracting the thermal expansion and contraction of other materials, ensuring stability for demanding applications.
For additional details, see the entry for this project on NASA TechPort.
Project Lead: Dr. James A. Monroe, ALLVAR
The following NASA organizations sponsored this effort: NASA Astrophysics Division, NASA SBIR Program funded by the Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
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Last Updated Jul 01, 2025 Related Terms
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Explore This Section Exoplanets Home Exoplanets Overview Exoplanets Facts Types of Exoplanets Stars What is the Universe Search for Life The Big Questions Are We Alone? Can We Find Life? The Habitable Zone Why We Search Target Star Catalog Discoveries Discoveries Dashboard How We Find and Characterize Missions People Exoplanet Catalog Immersive The Exoplaneteers Exoplanet Travel Bureau 5 Ways to Find a Planet Strange New Worlds Universe of Monsters Galaxy of Horrors News Stories Blog Resources Get Involved Glossary Eyes on Exoplanets Exoplanet Watch More Multimedia ExEP Artist’s concept of a planet orbiting two brown dwarfs. The planet is in a polar orbit (red), perpendicular to the mutual orbit of the two brown dwarfs (blue). ESO/L. Calçada The Discovery
A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far over the poles of two brown dwarfs. This pair of mysterious objects – too massive to be planets, not massive enough to be stars – also orbit each other. Yet a third brown dwarf orbits the other two at an extreme distance.
Key Facts
In a typical arrangement, as in our solar system, families of planets orbit their parent stars in more-or-less a flat plane – the orbital plane – that matches the star’s equator. The rotation of the star, too, aligns with this plane. Everyone is “coplanar:” flat, placid, stately.
Not so for possible planet 2M1510 b (considered a “candidate planet” pending further measurements). If confirmed, the planet would be in a “polar orbit” around the two central brown dwarfs – in other words, its orbital plane would be perpendicular to the plane in which the two brown dwarfs orbit each other. Take two flat disks, merge them together at an angle in the shape of an X, and you have the essence of this orbital configuration.
“Circumbinary” planets, those orbiting two stars at once, are rare enough. A circumbinary orbiting at a 90-degree tilt was, until now, unheard of. But new measurements of this system, using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope in Chile, appear to reveal what scientists previously only imagined.
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The method by which the study’s science team teased out the planet’s vertiginous existence is itself a bit of a wild ride. The candidate planet cannot be detected the way most exoplanets – planets around other stars – are found today: the “transit” method, a kind of mini-eclipse, a tiny dip in starlight when the planet crosses the face of its star.
Instead they used the next most prolific method, “radial velocity” measurements. Orbiting planets cause their stars to rock back and forth ever so slightly, as the planets’ gravity pulls the stars one way and another; that pull causes subtle, but measurable, shifts in the star’s light spectrum. Add one more twist to the detection in this case: the push-me-pull-you effect of the planet on the two brown dwarfs’ orbit around each other. The path of the brown dwarf pair’s 21-day mutual orbit is being subtly altered in a way that can only be explained, the study’s authors conclude, by a polar-orbiting planet.
Fun Facts
Only 16 circumbinary planets – out of more than 5,800 confirmed exoplanets – have been found by scientists so far, most by the transit method. Twelve of those were found using NASA’s now-retired Kepler Space Telescope, the mission that takes the prize for the most transit detections (nearly 2,800). Scientists have observed a small number of debris disks and “protoplanetary” disks in polar orbits, and suspected that polar-orbiting planets might be out there as well. They seem at last to have turned one up.
The Discoverers
An international science team led by Thomas A. Baycroft, a Ph.D. student in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Birmingham, U.K., published a paper describing their discovery in the journal “Science Advances” in April 2025. The planet was entered into NASA’s Exoplanet Archive on May 1, 2025. The system’s full name is 2MASS J15104786-281874 (2M1510 for short).
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