The unusual trio is much more massive and compact than similar systems.
Astronomers have detected a triple star system that is unlike any that has been seen before. The unusual trio of stars is much more massive and closely squeezed together than a typical triple system, which may be because the stellar triplets used to have a fourth sibling before one of the others gobbled it up.
Triple star systems are not that uncommon: As many as 10% of star systems in the universe could be tertiary, according to NASA . In September 2021, astronomers detected a single exoplanet orbiting a tertiary system for the first time, suggesting life could potentially exist in these systems. The binary pair of stars at the heart of TIC 470710327 has a combined mass of around 12 times the sun, and it takes just over one day for the two stars to orbit one another. The larger outer star is even more massive, weighing about as much as 16 suns, and it orbits the binary pair once every 52 days, which is"pretty fast, when you consider the size of them," Vigna-Gomez said.
There are three potential explanations for how TIC 470710327 was created. The first possibility is that the large outer star formed first, and the smaller stars formed later. This is perhaps the most unlikely explanation, as the massive star would likely have ejected or absorbed the gas needed to form new stars, researchers said. The second option is that the three stars all formed separately and gradually gravitated to each other until they started orbiting each other.
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