A Surprising Planet with Three Suns

A Surprising Planet with Three Suns

A team of astronomers have used the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope to image the first planet ever found in a wide orbit inside a triple-star system.

The orbit of such a planet had been expected to be unstable, probably resulting in the planet being quickly ejected from the system. But somehow this one survives.

This unexpected observation suggests that such systems may actually be more common than previously thought.

Artist impressions

Credit : European Southern Observatory

http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1624

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