AstroGrav Help /Sample Simulations /Exoplanet Systems /Kepler-223Version 5.1

Kepler-223

This simulation shows the Kepler-223 planetary system, as detailed in the Wikipedia article at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kepler-223

This is a particularly interesting planetary system, as the planets appear to be locked in resonance. Each time the outermost planet (Kepler-223 e) orbits three times, the next planet inwards (Kepler-223 d) orbits four times, the next planet inwards (Kepler-223 c) orbits six times, and the innermost planet (Kepler-223 b) orbits eight times. All four planets are much larger than the Earth, yet are considerably closer to Kepler-223 than the planet Mercury is to the Sun.

If you set the simulation running, you can watch how it evolves, and see how the orbital elements of the four planets slowly change with the passage of time. Since different computers run at different speeds, you may need to edit the evolution time step to get the simulation to run at an acceptable rate.