CAPE CANAVERAL, July 14: In a scenario out of “Star Wars,” astronomers have detected a planet outside our solar system with not one, but three suns, a finding that challenges astronomers’ theories of planetary formation. The planet, a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter, orbits the main star of a triple-star system known as HD 188753 in the constellation Cygnus (“The Swan”).
The stellar trio and its planet are about 149 light years from Earth and about as close to each other as our sun is to Saturn, US scientists reported on Thursday in the current edition of the journal Nature.
A light-year is about 10 trillion km, the distance light travels in a year.
If you stood on the planet’s surface, you would see three suns in sky, although its orbit centres around the main yellow star among the trio. The larger of the other two suns would be orange and the smaller would be red, astronomers at California Institute of Technology said in a statement.
An artists’ rendering of the planet and three stars, as seen from a hypothetical moon, is available at http://pr.caltech.edu/media/trinary_sunset_small-1.jpg.
The new finding could upset existing theories that planets usually form out of gas and dust circling a single star, and could lead scientists to look in new places for planets.
“The implication is that there are more planets out there than we thought,” the commentary said.—Reuters
