Planet Candidates in Motion: The Kepler Planet Orrery

An orrery is a moving model of a planetary system. Daniel Fabrycky, University of California at Santa Cruz, created two animated orrerys to display the 1,235 Kepler planet candidates.

1,235 Planet Candidates and Their Stars

The Kepler Planet Orrery displays the 1,235 planet candidates in orbit about their stars. The animation shows all the multiple-planet candidate systems discovered. Orbits go through the entire mission (3.5 years). Hot colors to cool colors (red to yellow to green to cyan to blue to gray) are big planets to smaller planets, relative to the other planets in the system.

Kepler Orrery: Multiple Planet Candidate Systems

The Kepler Planet Candidate Orrery of Small Orbits shows multiple-planet candidate systems discovered. These planets are much closer to their stars than Mercury to the Sun (0.387 AU on average) with outer planet candidate’s distance less than 0.17 AU. (1 AU = distance from the Sun to the Earth.) The details of these compact systems are displayed. Orbits go through the first five months of Kepler observations. Hot colors to cool colors (red to yellow to green to cyan to blue to gray) are big planets to smaller planets, relative to the other planets in the system.