(Opens in a new tab)Astronomers have discovered a triple star system unlike any seen before. The unusual trio of stars is much larger than the typical triple system, which may be because the three stars had a fourth brother before someone devoured them.
The triple or triple star system is known as TIC 470710327 and researchers discovered it using data from NASA’s orbiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) observatory. a land. The trio has a hierarchical structure, which means that a pair of binary stars orbit each other at the center of the system, and a third star orbits around the central pair.
Triple star systems are not uncommon: Up to 10% of star systems in the universe can be Class III, according to NASA (Opens in a new tab). In September 2021, astronomers discovered a One exoplanet orbiting a triple system For the first time, suggesting the possible existence of life in these systems.
However, TIC 470710327 stands apart from all other known higher education systems due to its size and shape. The stars are much larger than the typical stars in a triple system, which also means that the triple is more compact because they all make a stronger effort gravity withdraw from the usual.
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“To our knowledge, this is the first ever of its kind,” said lead study author Alejandro Vigna Gomez, an astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, He said in a statement (Opens in a new tab).
The binary pair of stars in the core of TIC 470710327 has a combined mass of about 12 times the sunIt takes just over a day for the two stars to orbit each other. The largest outer star, Vigna-Gomez said, is the largest, weighing roughly 16 suns, and orbiting the binary pair once every 52 days, which is “very fast, when you consider their size.”
The new system was originally found by a citizen scientist, who was combing the TESS database for abnormalities. The star system stood out to the amateur astronomer because of its high luminosity, as a result of the brightness of three stars instead of one. However, it wasn’t until researchers later evaluated the data that they realized it was a tertiary system. After discovering the stars’ size, the team set out to try to figure out how the unusual system formed.
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There are three possible explanations for how TIC 470710327 was created. The first possibility is that the large outer star formed first, and then the smaller stars formed later. This is perhaps the most likely explanation, the researchers said, as the massive star could have released or absorbed the gas needed to form new stars. The second option is that the three stars formed separately and gradually attracted each other until they began to revolve around each other. This is also unlikely because the massive outer star will most likely end up at the center of the system.
The third explanation is that the system was originally made up of two binary pairs – one at the center of the system we see today and the other orbiting where the most massive outer star is currently. The researchers believe that the outer binary pair then underwent a stellar fusion process to create a single, more massive star.
Based on extensive computer simulations, the team found that this third explanation best explained the stars’ massive size and compression.
The researchers want to continue searching for similar massive and compact ternary systems. “What we really want to know is whether this type of system is common in our universe,” study co-author Ben Liu, an astrophysicist at the Niels Bohr Institute, said in the statement. “Maybe there are more compact systems buried in the data.”
The study was published online June 29 in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (Opens in a new tab).
Originally published on Live Science.