Triple Sunset: Planet Discovered in 3-Star System

space.com ^ | 07/13/05 | Michael Schirber

[KevinDavis]

A newly discovered planet has bountiful sunshine, with not one, not two, but three suns glowing in its sky.

It is the first extrasolar planet found in a system with three stars. How a planet was born amidst these competing gravitational forces will be a challenge for planet formation theories.

"The environment in which this planet exists is quite spectacular," said Maciej Konacki from the California Institute of Technology. "With three suns, the sky view must be out of this world -- literally and figuratively."

The triple-star system, HD 188753, is located 149 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The primary star is like our Sun, weighing 1.06 solar masses. The other two stars form a tightly bound pair, which is separated from the primary by approximately the Sun-Saturn distance.

"The pair more or less acts as one star," Konacki told SPACE.com.

The combined mass of the close pair is 1.63 solar masses

[KevinDavis]

When do you think that we will find a Earth like planet??

[KevinDavis]

[Solamente]

Hundreds have been found - getting there will be a bitch.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

When's sunrise?

[JOE6PAK]

Ready for launch!

[KevinDavis]

One would make a killing when someone sells sunblocker..

[Buck W.]

Is it a red planet or a blue planet?

[editor-surveyor]

"When's sunrise?"

Good question! - Asuming that they really have found this planet, there is no way that they can determine if it is rotating. Sounds like a real hot spot.

[Beaker]

*ping*

[cripplecreek]

At the rate our imaging and detection technology is advancing I think we'll spot something "earthlike" within the next ten years.

[Paul C. Jesup]

Hundreds have been found - getting there will be a bitch.

But we know where they are. And the first step in going somewhere is to know where you are going.

[Redcloak]

I've always loved these "artist's renditions"...

[muir_redwoods]

Nightfall by Azimov

[I Drive Too Fast]

Rent the movie Pitch Black. They depict 3 suns around that planet also.

[Redcloak]

Here's a map for this one...

It's the one dead-center in the picture.

;-)

[Renegade]

Vin Diesel will know !! ( Pitch Black)

[RightWhale]

When do you think that we will find a Earth like planet??

Step outdoors. That is probably the only one, although it might be possible to find one of the right mass, etc. Venus or Mars, for example, and get Kyoto to suggest an economic way to improve the climate.

[MilspecRob]

When do you think that we will find a Earth like planet?? Step outdoors. That is probably the only one, although it might be possible to find one of the right mass, etc. Venus or Mars, for example, and get Kyoto to suggest an economic way to improve the climate.

Possibly, what do base your opinion on?

[RightWhale]

I know what I see. I don't see another earthlike planet aside from Mars and Venus.

[TaMoDee]

The planet MUST be rotating. However if the planet rotates like our moon rotates in relationship to earth than there may be no sunrise. (I assume this is what you meant to say.)