User:TheScienceGuy54

J1407b
J1407b also known as Super Saturn, is an exoplanet located 433.8 light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus. The planet was discovered in 2012 by the University of Rochester, located in New York.

J1407b is widely know for the massive size of its rings, which are 640 times the radius of the rings found on Saturn. J1407b was the first exoplanet, or brown dwarf with a ring system discovered by the transit method. J1407b orbits its parent star, 1SWASP J140747. (known simply as V1400 Centauri) in an eccentric (oval) orbit, which could disrupt J1407b's ring system.

Physical characteristics
J1407b has an Outer layer of hydrogen, helium, uranium, nitrogen, and iron. Beneath this layer lies a thick mantle of solid aluminum and a small core of semi-solid copper. J1407b's rings are probably made of dust, as J1407b is too hot - about 1,000 to 2,000 degrees celsius - to support ice rings like those orbiting Saturn.

Orbital period and rotation
J1407b rotates quite quickly on its axis, it completes one rotation in about 6 hours and has almost no axis tilt.

Astronomers estimate that the ringed companion J1407b has an orbital period of roughly a decade (10 years) in length.

Natural satellites
As of 2007, a total of 67 individual moons have been identified, plus 17 unconfirmed moons that could just be small clumps of dust in the rings. Many of the moons are very small, out of 67, 31 are less than 10 km in diameter, and another 13 less than 50 km.

Planetary rings
A new analysis of the data, led by Leiden's Matthew Kenworthy, shows that the ring system consists of over 3 rings, each of them tens of millions of kilometers in diameter. Furthermore, they found gaps in the rings, which indicate that satellites ("exomoons") may have formed. The result has been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal.

In the data astronomers found at least one clean gap in the ring structure. "One obvious explanation is that a satellite formed and carved out this gap," says Kenworthy. "The mass of the satellite could be between that of Earth and Mars. The satellite would have an orbital period of approximately two years around J1407b."

Discovery
J1407b was discovered by observing transition events using a telescope. The ring system was discovered because the transitions were very unusual. There was a pattern of brightening and dimming of its parent star observed from the Earth as the planet passed in-front of the star.

It was first observed in 2012. Its unusual transitions attracted further attention, and repeated observations were made. additional measurements were made using techniques like Doppler spectroscopy, which gives us information about the mass of a body orbiting a star by measuring a stars wobble. (A planet and a star orbit a common center, but since stars are far, far more massive than planets, the common center is often inside the star, so the star appears to "wobble." Greater wobble indicates a more massive companion. This wobble causes small periodic Doppler shifts in the light coming from the star, which we can observe and measure.