The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has announced the discovery of a highly unusual exoplanet. It is in a polar orbit, orbiting at a 90-degree angle around a pair of failed stars.
In recent years, astronomers have found several exoplanets in binary star systems. They are commonly referred to as Tatooines — similar to the fictional desert world from Star Wars. As a rule, the orbits of these planets roughly coincide with the plane in which their host stars orbit.
At the same time, astronomers had indirect evidence of the possibility of the existence of exoplanets in binary systems in perpendicular or polar orbits. Theoretically, such orbits could be stable. In addition, the researchers were able to find protoplanetary disks in polar orbits around pairs of stars. However, until recently, scientists had no clear evidence that such polar planets actually exist.
Everything changed thanks to the Very Large Telescope (VLT). It made observations of a very unusual system called 2M1510. It is located 117 light-years away from Earth and consists of three brown dwarfs: objects that are larger than gas giants but whose mass is insufficient to trigger full thermonuclear reactions. Because of this, they are often referred to as failed stars.
The two brown dwarfs at the center of M1510 orbit around a common center of gravity and periodically outshine each other. This fact makes the system incredibly rare. 2M1510 is only the second known pair of outshining brown dwarfs to date.
In the course of observations made with the instrument UVES installed on the VLT, astronomers found deviations in the orbits of a pair of brown dwarfs, caused by the gravity of the exoplanet orbiting around them. After considering all possible scenarios, they determined that it was the only one that was in complete agreement with all available data, namely if the exoplanet was in a polar orbit.
According to the scientists, the discovery came as a big surprise to them because the initial VLT observations were not aimed at finding exoplanets. The finding further emphasizes how amazing objects and systems exist in our Universe and are waiting to be discovered.
Earlier we reported on how the James Webb Telescope managed to find a vaporizing exoplanet.
According to ESO
