Published 20:24 IST, February 16th 2021
Scientists discover rare backward star, rotating in the opposite direction
In a recent development, two stars that rotate backwards have been discovered in a planetary system that is 897 light years away from us.
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In a recent development, two stars that rotate backwards have been discovered in a planetary system that is 897 light years away from us. K2-290 system consists of three stars and has two planets orbiting main star, K2-290 A. Scientists named Simon Albrecht at Aarhus University in Denmark and his colleagues revealed that when compared with both planets’ orbits, K2-290 A’s rotational axis is tilted by approximately 124 degrees. This indicates that star spins in opposite direction to its two orbiting planets.
Mystery behind misalignment
This misalignment has been seen before in or planetary systems. or ories say that turbulence during star formation is reason for misalignment. According to Albrecht and his colleagues, whole system is misaligned because of presence of a companion star – perhaps K2-290 B. This could have exerted gravitational forces which moved disc.
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K2-290 is considered unique because both planets are orbiting in same plane. This furr indicates that re is history to planetary system after spinning molecular cloud h evolved to become a star. According to reports by New Scientist, Chris Watson at Queen’s University Belfast, UK said that fact that planets appear to be coplanar means that maybe it wasn’t a dynamically violent mechanism that caused m to migrate, as he hints process towards disc. He furr ded that re are a lot of ways one can interpret spin-orbit misalignment. However, one assumes that actual planetary disc was aligned with whole star in first place.
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Also, scientists have long searched for planets with features similar to that of Earth, but so far haven't found a single one except for Mars, which obviously was much easier to detect given that we orbit same solar system next to each or. However, astromers from University of Warwick may have found remnants of planets resembling Earth. According to Express, UK-based scientists have discovered residue of planets with Earth-like crusts orbiting atmospheres of four dwarf stars in deep .
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(Im Credits: Unsplash)
20:24 IST, February 16th 2021