A young progenitor for the most common planetary systems in the Galaxy.

ABSTRACT: The Galaxy's most common known planetary systems have several Earth-to-Neptune-size planets in compact orbits¹. At small orbital separations, larger planets are less common than their smaller counterparts by an order of magnitude. The young star V1298 Tau hosts one such compact planetary system, albeit with four planets that are uncommonly large (5 to 10 Earth radii)^2,3. The planets form a chain of near-resonances that result in transit-timing variations of several hours. Here we present a multi-year campaign to characterize this system with transit-timing variations, a method insensitive to the intense magnetic activity of the star. Through targeted observations, we first resolved the previously unknown orbital period of the outermost planet. The full 9-year baseline

SUBMITTER: Livingston JH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12779570 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature