{"id":3022,"date":"2021-10-14T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/?p=3022"},"modified":"2021-09-30T23:49:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-30T23:49:07","slug":"orions-nose-may-hide-a-rare-planet-orbiting-three-suns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernsciences.org\/staging\/4414\/orions-nose-may-hide-a-rare-planet-orbiting-three-suns\/","title":{"rendered":"Orion\u2019s Nose May Hide a Rare Planet Orbiting Three Suns"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It\u2019s no surprise that the universe has many different ways of arranging its guts. Our Solar System may look homely, but it\u2019s far from the only arrangement of stars and planets out there. For one, other star systems may contain more than eight planets, or sometimes may contain less than that. Other times, you\u2019ll find star systems with two or more stars in the middle\u2014a binary star system<\/em>, or ternary<\/em>, and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most famous example of this is the star system Alpha Centauri<\/em> (\u03b1 Centauri<\/em>): a system of three stars (\u03b1 Centauri A<\/em>, or Rigil Kentaurus<\/em>; \u03b1 Centauri B<\/em>, or Toliman<\/em>; finally, \u03b1 Centauri C<\/em>, or Proxima Centauri<\/em>) locked in a dance together with two known planets (Proxima b<\/em> and Proxima c<\/em>). \u03b1 Centauri A and B are locked in step as a binary star system<\/em>, with \u03b1 Centauri C orbiting the two. The entire system is recognized as the closest star system to our own, at only 4.37 light-years away. (This also wasn\u2019t the first time we wrote about this system\u2014check out our piece on gravitational waves and the black hole merger from 2015 to find out more<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The artist\u2019s impression above shows a view of a potential planet orbiting the star \u03b1 Centauri B, in the Alpha Centauri system. \u03b1 Centauri A can be seen as the bright spot on the lower left, while our own Sun is visible as the bright spot on the upper right. It has been determined since, however, that the potential planet (designated \u03b1 Centauri Bb) may not exist after all. (Cal\u00e7ada\/Risinger\/European Southern Observatory, 2012) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

And while a triple-star system may sound unique on its own, there appears to be a star system configuration that\u2019s much rarer than that: a triple-star system with a single planet orbiting all three at once. (The planets in Alpha Centauri only orbit \u03b1 Centauri C\u2014it\u2019s the three stars that are gravitationally locked with each other.) Despite its rarity, this appears to be the case with a peculiar system called GW Orionis<\/em>, hereby shortened to GW Ori<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GW Ori is located some 1,300 light-years away, right at the \u201cnose\u201d of the constellation Orion. It appears to look like a gas cloud with two concentric rings cleared inside it\u2014pretty much like a giant bull\u2019s eye just floating around the universe. At the very center lie three stars locked in a dance, pretty much just like Alpha Centauri: a binary star system with a third star orbiting around the two.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A 2020 study pointed at the area where GW Ori was expected to be found; astronomers immediately noticed its strange \u201cbull\u2019s-eye\u201d appearance. (Bi et al, 2020) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Just last year, scientists pointed their eyes at GW Ori and noticed that the three concentric rings are misaligned, with the innermost ring having some wild \u201cwobbling.\u201d It was then that the authors of that paper theorize that a very young planet\u2014or perhaps a planet that isn\u2019t even done forming yet, otherwise known as a protoplanet<\/em>\u2014may be orbiting all three stars in the middle, hence the wobbling of the innermost ring. This would make this possible planet the first-ever known circumtriple<\/em> planet, or a planet orbiting three stars at once\u2014and would mean that the gas cloud was actually a protoplanetary disk<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new study this year, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society<\/em>, attempted to use 3D modeling to show how this peculiar \u201cbull\u2019s-eye\u201d structure may have formed. These simulations revealed that perhaps the most likely explanation is the presence of a young, large planet akin to our own Jupiter, or perhaps several smaller planets with roughly the same total gravitational presence. To the authors, this may be the cause of the concentric rings and the wobbling of the innermost ring. Ultimately, more research is needed on this peculiar star system to prove or disprove any preliminary findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lead author Jeremy Smallwood, from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, added in a statement to The New York Times that findings from their study may provide the \u201cfirst evidence of a circumtriple planet carving a gap in real time\u201d should it be proven true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For more peculiar space news, check out our pieces on the \u201caccidental\u201d brown dwarf found by a citizen scientist<\/a>, or our piece on the \u201cUnicorn\u201d black hole<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/h2>\n\n\n\n