Stellar Flyby in Star Cluster Rescued Planet (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Stellar Flyby in Star Cluster Rescued Planet

Caption

The HD 106906 binary star hosts a mysterious, asymmetric disk of cometary dust and a giant exoplanet HD 106906 b that is located very far from both the binary and the disk. Close flybys by other stars could have gravitationally perturbed the planet and researchers discovered that the two bright stars to the upper right passed near HD 106906 roughly 3 Myr years ago.

Credit

Paul Kalas, UC Berkeley

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