The planet Kepler-16b is known to follow a circumbinary orbit around a system of two main-sequence stars. We construct stability diagrams in the "pericentric distance-eccentricity" plane, which show that Kepler-16b is in a hazardous vicinity to the chaos domain - just between the instability "teeth" in the space of orbital parameters. Kepler-16b survives, because it is close to the stable half-integer 11/2 orbital resonance with the central binary, safe inside a resonance cell bounded by the unstable 5/1 and 6/1 resonances. The neighboring resonance cells are vacant, because they are "purged" by Kepler-16b, due to overlap of first-order resonances with the planet. The newly discovered planets Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b are also safe inside resonance cells at the chaos border.

Original languageEnglish
Article number152
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume769
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jun 2013

    Research areas

  • individual (Kepler-16b, Kepler-34b, Kepler-35b, planets and satellites, planets and satellites:dynamical evolution and stability, planets and satellites:formation

    Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

ID: 45987585