Discovery of a Planet in a Triple Star System

Imagine starting a beautiful morning with three bright suns in the sky. If you could live on the planet KELT-4Ab, this is how your morning would look. According to the Science Daily website, scientists have discovered a 'triple star system' located 685 light-years from Earth, and the unusual aspect of it is the existence of a planet with a stable orbit around it. Multi-star systems are quite common in the universe, and it is estimated that nearly half of all stars are part of such systems. However, the notable point in this new discovery is the existence of a planet. Astronomers are always searching for 'exoplanets' that orbit other stars. They do this by observing a star and seeing if its light dims. If this happens, it means that a planet has passed in front of that star. According to United Press International, scientists have discovered thousands of exoplanets, most of which had two stars. The new discovery indicates the existence of a gas giant planet that is one and a half times the size of Jupiter in our solar system. KELT-4Ab orbits only one of its three stars, named KELT-A, and this orbit takes three days. The other two stars in this system orbit each other, completing one full orbit in 30 years. On the other hand, their orbit around the main star of this system takes four thousand years. Such planets, known as 'hot Jupiters,' are not a newly discovered phenomenon, as scientists discovered the first planet of this type in 1995. However, this discovery is still significant as it provides information about the formation, movement, and evolution of these planets. The KELT telescope observes bright stars across vast sections of the sky, searching for planets that have very close orbits to their stars. When the star KELT-A dimmed every few days, scientists concluded that a planet was orbiting it. The Global News website quotes Professor Justin Krepp, a member of the KELT-4Ab discovery team, saying, 'We are looking to find out how planets end up in their final positions in orbits around stars. Until the mid-90s, scientists believed that large gas planets could only be found at very distant orbits from the stars they orbit, like Jupiter in our solar system. However, this new discovery completely changes that hypothesis.' Some theories suggest that gas giants with very close orbits to their suns have moved closer due to being ejected from their original orbits, likely by another planet that displaced them from their initial orbit.