14 DAY TRIAL // Astronomers at NASA have just released a new artist's rendition of a planetary system called KOI-961, which they say is remarkable because it looks eerily similar to Saturn and its moons. That is to say, its components are packed together extremely tightly.
The three small extrasolar planets that orbit the parent star are very close to its surface. The closest of them completes a full rotation around KOI-961 in just 12 hours, whereas the farthest one takes 48 hours to do the same. This close proximity implies that all three worlds are extremely hot.
Temperature estimates range from 350 to 836 degrees Fahrenheit (176 to 447 degrees Celsius), experts say. In this particular rendition, the exoplanet KOI-961.03, the farthest from the star, is located in the foreground. Astronomers say it is about the size of Mars.
The other two worlds – KOI-961.01 and KOI-961.02 – are 0.78 and 0.73 times the radius of Earth, respectively. The entire star system is located about 130 light-years away, in the Cygnus constellation.