A new paper has been accepted for publication in MNRAS (Monthly Notices of the Astronomical Society) by Dr Phil Sutton titled “Mean Motion Resonances With Nearby Moons: An Unlikely Origin For The Gaps Observed In The Ring Around The Exoplanet J1407b”.

J1407b is a large exoplanet (more than 20 times the mass of Jupiter) orbiting its star over 400 lightyears away from Earth. Like many exoplanets before, it was discovered by the transit method which detects a dip in a star’s brightness as a planet passes in front it. However, the star J1407 showed a prolonged and irregular dip in brightness that was attributed to a ring orbiting the planet 200 times larger than Saturn’s ring system. Modelling of this transit showed it was not uniform and instead had gaps. In Saturn’s rings gaps are caused by nearby moons outside the rings or smaller moons inside the rings that…