Kepler Planets Turn Out to be Small Stars

Using new data from ESA’s Gaia observatory, researchers recalculated the masses of several different exoplanets and found three are likely stars instead.

IMAGE: Among thousands of known exoplanets, MIT astronomers have flagged three that are actually stars. Pictured is an artist’s interpretation of stars and planets. CREDIT: NASA

A new study published in The Astronomical Journal reports that three and maybe even four objects originally classified as exoplanets in…