GJ3470-d and GJ3470-e: Discovery of Co-Orbiting Exoplanets in a Horseshoe Exchange OrbitWe report the discovery of two new exoplanets orbiting GJ3470, an M1.5 red dwarf in Cancer. The exoplanets were observed co-orbiting in a Horseshoe Exchange orbit. GJ3470-d is the larger of the two with a measured diameter of 92,318 km. It has a transit duration of 3 hours, 4 minutes, a depth of 1.4%, and an orbital period of 14.9617-days. The semi-major axis is 0.09671 AU. Assuming a circular orbit, the orbital velocity is 70.32 km/s. The maximum transit duration for that orbital distance across GJ3470 was calculated as 3h 4.5m. Our average duration of 3h 4m, means inclination is very near 90 degrees.
The second exoplanet, GJ3470-e, is the smaller of the two. Its diameter was calculated to be 54,376 km and leads the larger planet by 1.146-days (1d 3h 30m) at the date of last observation. Data shows that GJ3470-e’s lead distance is increasing by 7.49-minutes during each orbit of GJ3470-d. These will be the second and third exoplanets out of three exoplanets discovered and characterized by amateur astronomers without professional data or assistance. All three exoplanets, GJ3470-c, GJ3470-d, and GJ3470-e, were amateur discoveries made by Scott from his OKSky Observatory located in Oklahoma. When confirmed, this will likely be the first ever discovery of co-orbiting exoplanets and in particular, the first objects outside the solar system that co-orbit in a Horseshoe Exchange orbit.
As with the previous reported discovery by this group, both TESS photometry and HARPS RV's disprove the d and e candidates. That all aside, it's pretty clear from reading their paper that their methodology is flawed. Expect a paper on arXiv about this soon. .