That’s right, it’s a bit far away. It’s in the constellation Orion. But that doesn’t make it any less interesting. Scientists have found an exceptionally rare star system. There’s something interesting there: the planet that has three suns. It was named GW Orionis, or simply GW Ori. This grouping of stars is located about 1,300 light years from Earth.
Triple star
“It has three dusty orange rings nested inside each other. This system [estelar] literally looks like a giant bull’s-eye in the sky. At the center of that bullseye live three stars. Two of them locked in a tight binary orbit with each other. The third, revolving widely around the other two”. The information details the scientific portal Live Science (LS).
What are triple star systems? They are sets of three stars orbiting around a common center of gravity. And they are by themselves rather rare occurrences in the cosmos. But the peculiarities of GW Ori don’t end there.
A study conducted in 2020 took a closer look at the star system. The ALMA telescope in Chile helped. It found that its three dust rings are out of alignment with each other. The innermost ring “wobbles wildly in its orbit,” it adds LS.
Unprecedented formation
A planet in formation could be responsible for the disruption of gravitational equilibrium. If its existence is confirmed, it would be the first planet circumtriple in the known universe. That is, the planet having three suns is something unique.
The cause is likely to be a huge planet the size of Jupiter. Or, perhaps, several planets. This would prove that planets can form in ways currently unknown to scientists.
The study was published last September 17. It was done in the scientific journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
