Corey S PowellApr 16

Possibly the weirdest planet yet discovered?

Newfound world 2M1510 (AB) b appears to orbit not one but two stars...and they are actually failed stars, known as brown dwarfs...and the planet orbits sideways, in a unique up-and-down polar orbit.

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2508/ #space #science #astronomy #nature

"Big surprise": astronomers find planet in perpendicular orbit around pair of stars

Astronomers have found a planet that orbits at an angle of 90 degrees around a rare pair of peculiar stars. This is the first time we have strong evidence for one of these ‘polar planets’ orbiting a stellar pair. The surprise discovery was made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

www.eso.org
Show threadAndrew OrrApr 16
@coreyspowell Why is the orbit weird, because it’s not on the same plane? Edit: Thanks everyone, I appreciate the answers.
Show threadJohn Carlos BaezApr 17

@andrewornot - the planet's orbit is weird because it's shooting through the center of each star's orbit - the red ellipse is shooting through each blue ellipse.

[EDIT: no, it's probably not doing that.]

Show threadGuillaume RossoliniApr 17
@johncarlosbaez @andrewornot are stars orbiting these points then? Or what are they orbiting
Show threadJohn Abbe (aka Slow)
@GuillaumeRossolini @johncarlosbaez @andrewornot Their barycenter — common center of gravity.
Apr 17 at 1:51amWeb
Show threadGuillaume RossoliniApr 17

@slowenough @johncarlosbaez @andrewornot I don’t get any of this 😆

I’m not going to use the correct words because I’m not a scientist, also not English native language

Are we seeing the planet’s orbit as a slice (looks squished because perspective but it’s really more circular) or as a plane (and it’s really this elliptical in shape)

If it’s a more round shape, I’m guessing that one part of the red orbit is close to the camera and the other is on the other side, and none of these crosses the blue orbits at all, and it would kinda make more sense?

And I still don’t get the two stars’ orbits as they don’t have a common center, there’s just an overlap

Show threadJohn Carlos BaezApr 17

@GuillaumeRossolini - it's impossible to be sure from the picture whether the planet's orbit (in red) is a circle that looks squished due to perspective, or a long thin ellipse. I agree with you that that a circle makes more sense, because then it never gets close to either star. I had thought it was a long thin ellipse!

As for the star's orbits, they look fine to me. They have a common focus. The focus of an ellipse is not in the middle, it's at one end! For example here's a planet going around a star in a long elliptical orbit:

Show threadGuillaume RossoliniApr 17
@johncarlosbaez oh ok thank you
Show threadMother BonesApr 17

@GuillaumeRossolini @slowenough @johncarlosbaez @andrewornot

It's like if the suns were clasping each other's hands in front.

And then the planet's orbit is like a big flat plate between the two of them, centered on their clasped hands.

Then just throw out the metaphor because the suns are moving around their mutual center too 😂