HD 131399Ab, the exoplanet three newly discovered stars that intrigue astronomers – Maxisciences

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Researchers have discovered a planet orbiting the three star in the constellation Centaurus. A surprising discovery because scientists thought until now that this type of structure was unstable.

Even better than Tatooine, the planet with two suns in Star Wars, here 131399Ab HD. More exotic, this planet orbits three stars and just destroyed the certainties of science. Long, they thought such multi-star system was highly unstable and therefore not observable in space.

However, the University of Arizona team in the US has managed to find an example in the constellation Centaurus with the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile based. The planet HD 131399Ab is located some 320 light years from Earth and is 16 million years, making it one of the youngest exoplanet discovered to date, but that’s not all .

A single system

With a mass of about four times that of Jupiter, HD 131399Ab is one of the first exoplanets observed directly but only also showing a particular dynamic configuration. It evolves around a star 80% larger than our Sun at a distance twice as great as that between the Sun and Pluto.

Two other stars, more distant, circling them quickly and probably also influence the orbit of the exoplanet. Kevin Wagner, a PhD student who participated in the research, explains: “ for almost half of the revolution of the planet lasts 550 Earth years, the three stars are visible in the sky ”

According to the researchers, the exoplanet would have a surface temperature of 580 ° C. This feature makes it one of the coldest observed directly. The team also managed to determine the evolution of stars in the sky of the planet. For many months, it would have a triple sunset.

At other times, however, the stars are perfectly organized so that the bed of a match the rise of another.

still secrets to reveal

Although the accuracy of some details can deceive, researchers still have many questions about HD 131399Ab. For example, the origin of this planet remains a mystery for now, as the reason why it remains stable despite predictions. “ We do not know how this planet ended up on this very broad orbit of this extreme system” says Kevin Wagner.

“Our computer simulations have shown that this type of orbit may be stable, but if you change things if only a little bit, it becomes unstable very quickly,” reports Daniel Apai, the a co-author of the study. Although the exoplanet has not revealed all its secrets, it is therefore of great interest to researchers and our knowledge of the Universe.

“We can not say that it broadens our understanding of the types of planetary systems but it shows that there is more variety than what he seemed possible. our conclusion is as planets in multi-star systems have been much less studied but are potentially as many systems as a star “concluded Wagner.