Astronomers have discovered a triple star system unlike any other observed before. The odd trio of stars is significantly more massive and tightly packed together than a conventional triple system, which might be because the stellar triplets once had a fourth sibling before one of the others devoured it.
The triple, or tertiary, star system is known as TIC 470710327, and it was discovered using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (or TESS), which orbits Earth. The trio has a hierarchical structure, which means that a pair of binary stars circle each other in the system's centre, while a third star orbits the central pair.
System with three stars is not uncommon: According to NASA, up to 10% of all star systems in the universe might be tertiary. Astronomers discovered a single exoplanet circling a tertiary system for the first time in September 2021, implying that life might exist in these systems.
TIC 470710327, on the other hand, stands out from all other known tertiary systems due to its size and form. Because the stars are substantially more massive than the ordinary stars seen in a tertiary system, the trio is much more compact because they all exert a higher gravitational attraction than usual.
The binary pair of stars at the centre of TIC 470710327 has a total mass of around 12 times that of the sun, and the two stars orbit each other in little over a day. The bigger outer star is considerably more massive, weighing around the same as 16 suns, and it circles the binary pair once every 52 days, which is quite quickly considering their size.
The researchers want to continue searching for similarly massive and compact tertiary systems, to find out whether this kind of system is common in our universe or not.
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