Kepler-56 - Misaligned multi-planet system with impending doom

Referred Science paper:
 
Stellar Spin-Orbit Misalignment in a Multiplanet System

Nice! I seem to remember this scenario had been proposed for 55 Cancri.

Now in arXiv preeprint too.

http://spaceref.com/astronomy/this-star-will-swallow-two-planets.html

« …Two worlds orbiting a distant star are about to become a snack of cosmic proportions. Astronomers announced today that the planets Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c will be swallowed by their star in a short time by astronomical standards. Their ends will come in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively… »


http://spaceref.com/astronomy/this-star-will-swallow-two-planets.html

It sounds like they managed to determine the orbit of the third planet in the system.

Quote :

The only survivor in the system will be Kepler-56d, a gas giant planet circling in a 3.3-Earth-year orbit. It will watch from a safe distance as its two sibling worlds meet their demise.

I wonder how they estimated these numbers (130 Myr and 155 Myr). We've seen numerous papers estimate remaining lifetimes for some of the shorter period hot Jupiters, so what is new here?

So Kepler-56 d is confirmed?

They're acting like it is. I guess we'll have to wait for the paper.

This may be the paper that the above information is based on.

The Dynamics of the Multi-planet System Orbiting Kepler-56
http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.2249

The Orbit and Mass of the Third Planet in the Kepler-56 System
http://arxiv.org/abs/1608.03627

Quote :

While the vast majority of multiple-planet systems have their orbital angular momentum axes aligned with the spin axis of their host star, Kepler-56 is an exception: its two transiting planets are coplanar yet misaligned by at least 40 degrees with respect to their host star. Additional follow-up observations of Kepler-56 suggest the presence of a massive, non-transiting companion that may help explain this misalignment. We model the transit data along with Keck/HIRES and HARPS-N radial velocity data to update the masses of the two transiting planets and infer the physical properties of the third, non-transiting planet. We employ a Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampler to calculate the best-fitting orbital parameters and their uncertainties for each planet. We find the outer planet has a period of 1002 ± 5 days and minimum mass of 5.61 ± 0.38 Jupiter masses. We also place a 95% upper limit of 0.80 m/s/yr on long-term trends caused by additional, more distant companions.