Hypothetical observers on one of these planets could see three suns in the sky for part of the year
Tamara Traubman
A multinational team of astronomers has discovered two giant planets outside our solar system. The planets were discovered at a distance of about two hundred light years from Earth. One is near the constellation "Ursa Major", and the other is in the region of the constellation "Navel". In one of them, strange and unusual features were observed, so much so that some astronomers say that it may have been formed in a different process than the one in which the Earth and the other planets in our solar system were formed.
The planets were discovered after a long hunt that was carried out from the largest telescope in the world - the "Kek" telescope in Hawaii, and from the telescope at the "Haute Provence" observatory in the south of France. Prof. Zvi Maza, chairman of the Institute of Astronomy at Tel Aviv University and one of the partners in the discovery, says that the first hints of the existence of the planets were discovered two years ago, but only now has the collection of sufficient data to confirm the discovery been completed. The discovered planets join about 50 planets found so far outside our solar system. As a rule, it is impossible to directly observe the planets that are outside the solar system, because the light reflected from them is too weak for the telescopes that exist today to be able to detect it.
However, one can learn of their existence by watching for telltale signs from the sunlight around which they spend their holidays. This is because the planet's gravity slightly deflects the Sun's orbit. The small fluctuations that occur in the sun's orbit are detected with telescopes and precise measuring devices.
In an official announcement published yesterday by the team - which also includes astronomers from the USA and Switzerland - it was stated that one of the planets revolves around one sun with two other suns next to it. This means that at a certain time of the year three suns shine in his name.
The other planet orbited a sun numbered HD80606, located at the end of Ursa Major. The path it takes around its sun is puzzling. Unlike the Earth, which revolves around the Sun in an almost circular orbit, the new planet orbits in an elliptical orbit, which scientists call an "eccentric orbit". A year on this planet lasts 110 days. When it is far from its sun, it has temperatures similar to those on Earth. When it is at its closest point, the temperatures in it reach about 1,000 degrees Celsius.
Shai Zucker, a doctoral student from Tel Aviv University who participated in the research, says that according to the conventional wisdom, a planet's orbit around the sun is determined during its formation. According to him, the unusual orbit of the new planet raises the possibility that different and unknown processes were involved in its formation.
Prof. Maurice Podolek, who studies planetary development processes at Tel Aviv University, and did not participate in this research, adds: "We know planets with eccentric orbits, but this orbit is almost like the orbit of a comet. This still does not mean that we should throw away our theories about the evolution of planets, but it does imply that our solar system is probably not the typical case in the universe."
