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Tag: binary star system

This is an artist’s impression of the exoplanet 2M1510 (AB) b’s unusual orbit around its host stars, a pair of brown dwarfs. The newly discovered planet has a polar orbit, which is perpendicular to the plane in which the two stars are travelling. Polar planets around single stars had been found before, as well as polar discs of gas and dust capable of forming planets around binary stars. But thanks to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) this is the first time we have strong evidence that such a planet actually exists in a polar orbit around two stars. The two brown dwarfs appear as a single source in the sky, but astronomers know there are two of them because they periodically eclipse each other. Using the UVES spectrograph on the VLT they measured their orbital speed, and noticed that their orbits change over time. After carefully ruling out other explanations, they concluded that the gravitational tug of a planet in a polar orbit was the only way to explain the motion of the brown dwarfs.

Weirdest Planetary System Ever? Meet the Planet That Spins Perpendicular to Its Stars

Forget neat planetary orbits — this newly discovered exoplanet circles two brown dwarfs at a right angle.

This artist’s impression shows an eclipsing binary star system. As the two stars orbit each other they pass in front of one another and their combined brightness, seen from a distance, decreases. By studying how the light changes, and other properties of the system, astronomers can measure the distances to eclipsing binaries very accurately. A long series of observations of very rare cool eclipsing binaries has now led to the most accurate determination so far of the distance to the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring galaxy to the Milky Way and crucial step in the determination of distances across the Universe.

Record-breaking binary pair stars orbit each other in less than a day

byJordan Strickler

January 12, 2023

It's the closest and oldest ultracool dwarf binary ever observed.

Can planets orbit multiple star systems like in Star Wars?

byPaula Ferreira

June 17, 2022 - Updated on July 25, 2023

Planets in binary, tetranary, octonary systems. Are they possible?

Double trouble: binary star systems can be dangerous for exoplanets

January 7, 2013

Alien planets located in binary star systems are at the risk of being ejected into interstellar space, an international team ...

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© 2007-2025 ZME Science - Not exactly rocket science. All Rights Reserved.