Astronomers may have discovered the first planet to orbit 3 stars

Researchers and colleagues at UNLV may have identified the first known planet orbiting three stars.

Unlike our solar system, which consists of a lone star, it is believed that half of all star systems, like GW Ori where astronomers have observed the new phenomenon, consist of two or more stars that are gravitationally related to them. to each other.

But no planet orbiting three stars – a circumptriple orbit – has ever been discovered. Maybe until now.

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Using observations from the powerful Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope, astronomers at UNLV analyzed the three dust rings observed around the three stars, which are essential to the formation of the planets.

But they found a substantial, but puzzling, gap in the circumtriple disc.

The research team investigated different origins, including the possibility that the gap was created by the gravitational couple of the three stars. But after building a complete model of GW Ori, they discovered that the most likely and fascinating explanation for space in the disk is the presence of one or more massive planets, Jupiter in nature. The gas giants, according to Jeremy Smallwood, senior author and recent PhD. graduates in astronomy from UNLV, are usually the first planets to form within a star system. Terrestrial planets like Earth and Mars follow.

The planet itself cannot be seen, but the discovery, highlighted in a September study in the Monthly notices from the Royal Astronomical Society-suggests that this is the first circumtriple planet ever discovered. Further observations from the ALMA telescope are expected in the coming months, which could provide direct evidence of the phenomenon.

“It’s really exciting because it makes the theory of planetary formation really robust,” Smallwood said. “It could mean that the formation of the planets is a lot more active than we thought, which is pretty cool.”