TESS Observes Stellar Triplets

Professional and amateur astronomers teamed up with artificial intelligence to find an unmatched stellar trio called TIC 290061484, thanks to cosmic “strobe lights” captured by NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite).

The system contains a set of twin stars orbiting each other every 1.8 days, and a third star that circles the pair in just 25 days. The discovery smashes the record for shortest outer orbital period for this type of system, set in 1956, which had a third star orbiting an inner pair in 33 days.

Partly because the stars in the newfound system orbit in nearly the same plane, scientists say it’s likely very stable despite their tight configuration (the trio’s orbits fit within a smaller area than Mercury’s orbit around the Sun). Each star’s gravity doesn’t perturb the others too much, like they could if their orbits were tilted in different directions.

Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

Producer: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)
Science Writer: Ashley Balzer (eMITS)
Visualizers: Veselin Kostov (NASA Postdoctoral Fellow)
Brian Powell (NASA/GSFC)
Scientist: Veselin Kostov (NASA Postdoctoral Fellow)
Editor: Scott Wiessinger (eMITS)