SPOCK Predicts Which Planetary Systems Will Survive (IMAGE)

Princeton University

SPOCK Predicts Which Planetary Systems Will Survive

Caption

While three planets have been detected in the Kepler-431 system, little is known about the shapes of their orbits. On the left are a large number of superimposed orbits for each planet that are consistent with observations. An international team of astrophysicists led by Princeton's Daniel Tamayo removed all the unstable configurations that would have already collided and couldn't be observed today. Doing this with previous methods would take over a year of computer time. With their new model SPOCK, it takes 14 minutes.

Credit

Image by Daniel Tamayo

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