Monday, August 22, 2016

Newly discovered planet has 3 suns

Go to the article to see a neat video of artist's impression of this system. The two smaller suns orbit each other, as they orbit the biggest sun. The planet orbits the biggest sun at a closer distance than the other suns.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/uoa-ndp070116.php

Public Release: 7-Jul-2016
Newly discovered planet has 3 suns
A team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona has discovered a planet in a unique position between 3 stars
University of Arizona

If you thought Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine, was a strange world with its two suns in the sky, imagine this: a planet where you'd either experience constant daylight or enjoy triple sunrises and sunsets each day, depending on the seasons, which happen to last longer than human lifetimes.

Such a world has been discovered by a team of astronomers led by the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, using direct imaging. The planet, HD 131399Ab, is unlike any other known world - on by far the widest known orbit within a multi-star system. The discovery will be published online by the journal Science on Thursday, 7 July, 2016.

Located about 340 light years from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, HD 131399Ab is believed to be about 16 million years old, making it one of the youngest exoplanets discovered to date, and one of very few directly imaged planets.

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