‘Star Wars’ is wrong, says Rebecca Nealon of the University of Warwick in the UK, one of the paper’s authors.
Scientists were looking for planets orbiting three stars, and they found possible clues in other systems, Ji Ji Tao, which is located about 450 light years from Earth. But the researchers say the gap in GW Ori’s gas-dust ring makes it a more interesting example.
“This may be the first evidence of a circular planet drilling holes in real time,” said Jeremy Smallwood of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lead author of the new research paper.
William Welch, an astronomer at San Diego State University, said the researchers “have made a good case. If this turns out to be a planet, that would be pretty cool.”
Alison Young of the University of Leicester in the UK, who argues that the star JWUri has caused a hole in the system’s disk, not the planet, notes that observations from the ALMA telescope and the Very Large Telescope in Chile in the coming months could end the controversy.
“We will be able to look for direct evidence of a planet within the disk,” said Dr. Young.
If the planetary hypothesis is confirmed, the system will reinforce the idea that planet formation is common. It is well known that many worlds, known as circular planets, orbit two stars at the same time. But it’s hard to get circular planets – despite estimates at least ten All stars are grouped into a system of three or more. However, their possible presence suggests that the planets came from all kinds of places, even here in the most exotic of these systems.
“Three stars are not enough to kill planet formation,” said Dr. Nelon.
This suggests that exoplanets are likely to appear in increasingly unusual locations. “What we’ve learned is that any time a planet can form, they do,” said Sean Raymond, an astronomer at the University of Bordeaux in France, who was not involved in the research.
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