In response to Gerard’s question in his recent emailing re Kepler – 11
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/new_planetary_system.html‘
The question is why do these solar system’s have planet’s so close to the main star? ‘My thinking is that the mass of Kepler -11, the Sun-like star that Kepler is observing, could be significantly larger than our Sun’s mass – nothing is mentioned in the reports about Kepler-11’s mass, so far as I can see.
If the mass is greater than our Sun’s - the gravitational pull on its planets will be greater causing them to orbit closer to their parent star than the planets in our Solar system.
Any other suggestions or can I claim the prize?
Brian
