Astronomy. There is a planet with three suns – Courrier International

A team of astronomers has spotted a massive planet located approximately 320 light years from Earth, orbiting in a three-star system.

You thought Tatooine, the planet with two suns in the saga Star Wars was pure fiction? Yet this kind of world exists in the Universe, especially in the constellation Centaurus. This is what has just revealed a team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona, who discovered a gas giant planet orbiting in a three-star system.

In an article published Thursday 7 July on the site Science , the researchers detail the characteristics of HD 131399Ab this mégaplanète primarily composed of hydrogen and helium, whose circumference is eleven times greater than that of Earth. HD 131399Ab is however not the first to have three suns – as recalled an article Space.com from 2005 – but is the first in a wide orbit system.

multi-star not so rare systems?

“This is strange, because the systems multi-stars are generally so unstable that they eject planets, subject to the gravitational forces of all the suns in competition with each other, “ says the Atlantic . The “survival” in the system of this planet “could mean that such multi-star systems hosting planets are more common than scientists tend to think the” continues the American newspaper.

on HD 131399Ab, each of the sun is visible in the sky of the exoplanet. “Preliminary data suggest that the gas giant (about four times the mass of Jupiter) orbit around the largest and brightest of the three stars (which has about 1.8 times the mass of our Sun) once every 550 years or more “, details Science .

An intricate dance

“The two other suns of the system, smaller stars that orbit one around the other relatively closely and quickly, are somewhere at a distance of between 45 and 60 billion kilometers away, “ continues the scientific journal, adding: ” the complex dance the planet and the star runs about 320 light years from us. “

” What’s great with the discoveries as celles- it is that, being the first of its kind, it challenges what we know and what we think we know, “ is Christian Science Monitor Jason Eastman, researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for astrophysics, who was not involved in the study. “This reminds us how a world can be strange. It need not be like ours, with a sun and a fairly constant orbit, there may be many different configurations. “

The video below, the British newspaper the Guardian shows the dance HD 131399Ab and three suns.