Scientists may have discovered the first planet to orbit three stars at a time

In the constellation Orion, a star system named GW Ori sits 1,300 light years from Earth, surrounded by a massive disk of dust and gas. It has aroused the interest of astronomers for a variety of reasons, but the most notable is that it is a three-star system rather than one.

The mystery doesn’t end there either: GW Ori’s disc is split in half, resembling Saturn’s rings if there was a large gap between them, and the outer ring is tilted about 38 degrees.

Scientists speculate that the space in the disk could be caused by the formation of one or more planets in the system, and if so, it would be the first known planet to orbit three stars at the same time, according to a release. European Southern Observatory (ESO) press release.

Now, a team of astronomers have modeled the GW Ori system in more detail, and according to the results they published in the Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society, a gaseous planet as massive as Jupiter is the best explanation for this vast hole in the dust cloud. We cannot yet observe the planet directly, but it could be in the process of carving its orbit during the salad age.

There is also another explanation why the gravitational torque of stars clears space in the disk, but the researchers of the new study say there is not enough turbulence in the disk to support this theory.

What would it be like to be there?

If the planet could support life and you could travel through interstellar space to get to the gas giant, you wouldn’t actually be able to see the three stars in the sky like Star Wars might have you believe, the New York Times reports. On the contrary, you would only see one pair because the two innermost stars orbit so close to each other that they look like a single point of light. However, as the planet rotated you would see the stars rise and fall in beautiful sunrises and sunsets unlike anything that can be seen on any other known planet.

Whether the planet exists is still up for debate, but observations from the ALMA telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile in the coming months may provide an answer.