Several planets orbiting two stars at once, like the fictional Star Wars world Tatooine, have been discovered in the past years. These planets typically occupy orbits that roughly align with the plane in which their host stars orbit each other. There have previously been hints that planets on perpendicular, or polar, orbits around binary stars could exist: in theory, these orbits are stable, and planet-forming discs on polar orbits around stellar pairs have been detected. However, until now, we lacked clear evidence that these polar planets do exist.
this post was submitted on 17 Apr 2025
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'Big surprise': Astronomers find planet in perpendicular orbit around pair of stars
(www.sciencedaily.com)