In the new planetary system, the central star and the planets rotate in different directions

Planetologists have discovered an exotic triple star system in the constellation Libra - K2-290. Planets around one

of its stars rotate in one direction, and the star itself rotates in the other. This challenges generally accepted theories of planet formation, the authors said. 

Scientists Maria Hjorth and SimonAlbrecht (Simon Albrecht) from the University of Aarhus, which is located in Denmark, shared the results of observation of the star system K2-290, which contains a total of three stars with two planets that revolve around the main star - K2-290A.

They found that the star rotates with an inclination of 124 degrees relative to the ecliptic and, importantly, in the opposite direction relative to the planets.

Albrecht and his colleagues repeated the measurements using the planet K2-290Ab, which is closer to the star. Their initial findings were confirmed.

The discovery of the K2-290 system indicated for the first timethat we can no longer assume that protoplanetary disks and stars always rotate in the same direction. Finding this will change our understanding of the appearance of other unusual stellar systems, especially those with "hot Jupiters", and will also change the way we look for planets at great distances from stars.

Research text

The authors plan to continue monitoring K2-290.They also believe that the discovery of other stars of this kind will help to understand how current theories of planet formation need to be adjusted to explain the existence of such star systems.

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