Unlike the lonely sun, about half the stars in our Milky Way galaxy are in a long-term committed relationship with another star, orbiting each another in a celestial marriage called a binary system. Researchers this week described one of these marriages gone wrong - a twosome that borders on the extreme, with the pair whirling around each other every 51 minutes in the fastest such orbital period known for a rare class of binary stars. The system belongs to a class of binary stars known as "cataclysmic variables" in which a star similar to our sun orbits close to what is called a white dwarf, basically a hot and compact core of a burned-out star.
Our search for exoplanets continues. With the help of latest technology, we have been building powerful telescopes that can not only scan the skies for what's visible, but also those that can pinpoint developments in lights that are not visible to human eyes. Till now, 5084 extrasolar planets have been confirmed. 3,811 planetary systems outside our Solar System have been found. What's more, there are another 8912 candidates awaiting confirmation.
But it has been for the first time that scientists have made a 3D structure of binary system with a planet.
By precisely tracing a small, almost imperceptible, wobble in a nearby star’s motion through space, astronomers have discovered a Jupiter-like planet orbiting that star, which is one of a binary pair.
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