Scientists discover a world with three suns

Astronomers have spotted a planet in a three star solar system using the European Space Observatory’s (ESO) Very Large Telescope in Chile.

The young Jovian planet is only 16 million years old‚ and is about four times the size of Jupiter.

This makes it the youngest exo-planet directly observed‚ as well as being one of the least massive and coldest at 580 degrees Celsius.

However‚ the really fascinating thing is that it orbits one of the three stars in the Centaurus constellation‚ demonstrating that such orbits are possible.

"For about half of the planet’s orbit‚ which lasts 550 Earth-years‚ three stars are visible in the sky; the fainter two are always much closer together‚ and change in apparent separation from the brightest star throughout the year‚" Kevin Wagner‚ the paper's first author and discoverer of the planet said in a statement.

“Such orbits are often unstable‚ because of the complex and changing gravitational attraction from the other two stars in the system‚ and planets in stable orbits were thought to be very unlikely‚” according to the ESO.

"If the planet was further away from the most massive star in the system‚ it would be kicked out of the system‚" explained Daniel Apai‚ from the University of Arizona in the United States and one of the co-authors of the new paper.

"Our computer simulations have shown that this type of orbit can be stable‚ but if you change things around just a little bit‚ it can become unstable very quickly."

Artists’s impression of its orbit here:

The full study has been published at Science‚ but is unfortunately behind a paywall.