Similar to the Earth and Sun, most planets throughout space orbit one star — but scientists may have just found the first planet to orbit three stars all at once. For fans of science fiction, strange systems like this are talked about all the time. Whether it's the two suns of Tatooine in Star Wars or the all-water Miller's Planet in Interstellar, there's a constant fascination of what other planets beyond Earth could look like. As exciting as these made-up worlds can be, scientists and astronomers make regular discoveries in real life that are just as fascinating.
All it takes is a basic following of the space industry to see this for yourself. Some of the most recent discoveries include a gorgeous 'golden ring' that's over 9 billion light-years away, dog bone-like asteroids tumbling throughout space, and a peculiar failed star that's been named 'The Accident.' While every discovery is important for its own unique reasons, this latest one could be one of the year's most impressive so far.
In a study published in the Oxford Acamedic, scientists have detailed a peculiar system named 'GW Ori.' GW Ori is puzzling for a few reasons. For one thing, the disks of Ori are split into two distinct sections — the outer of which has a noticeable tilt of 38-degrees. It's not unlike the rings of Saturn, save for the fact that these have a huge gap in them. Furthermore, these rings exist without a visible planet. After conducting advanced modeling on the system, scientists believe the two disks are the beginning formation of a large, gassy giant that's around only a million years old (hence why the planet can't be seen). While that's all fascinating enough, the icing on the cake is the star system surrounding this invisible planet. Rather than having one or two stars, GW Ori has three stars simultaneously orbiting its forming planet.
What These Three Stars Reveal About GW Ori
This raises many interesting questions, one of the most important of which is "What would the sky look like on a planet with three stars?" In the case of this particular planet, the effect would actually be less impressive than you'd expect. As The New York Times explains, it's likely someone would only be able to see the two closest stars towards the center of the forming planet. They would also appear as a single beacon of light, though the effect would still be incredible to look at.
Furthermore, while the GG Tau A system was previously discovered as another possible planet with three stars, what we know about GW Ori makes it a much more likely candidate. Head author of the study, Jeremy Smallwood, explains that "It may be the first evidence of a circumtriple planet carving a gap in real time."
While this study is quite convincing in its evidence, further work is being done to confirm if a planet really does exist in GW Ori. Other people in the industry, such as Dr. Alison Young, argue the disks in GW Ori are formed just by the stars and not a growing planet. It's impossible to say with 100 percent certainty just yet, but that'll change soon enough. In the coming months, astronomers will observe GW Ori using ALMA and the Very Large Telescope in Chile to get a closer look at the system. If it's discovered that there really is a planet forming around the three stars, it'll confirm that space can sometimes been even more interesting than the fictional media that portrays it.
Source: Oxford Academic, The New York Times
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