Here's a little tidbit I picked up on this topic: Quote:
The existence of a "hot Jupiter" planet in such a tight triple-star system poses challenging questions about how planets form. Theorists have long thought that hot Jupiters form much farther from their host stars and migrate into tight orbits through gravitational interactions with their circumstellar disks. But it's highly unlikely this could have happened in HD 188753. The disrupting gravitational influence of the secondary pair of stars would have truncated the disk around the primary, severely limiting the amount of available material to make a giant planet.
Theorists Alan P. Boss (Carnegie Institution of Washington) and Jack J. Lissauer (NASA/Ames Research Center) think the planet probably formed at a greater distance from its host star and was flung into its current orbit during complex gravitational interactions that should occur as multiple-star systems evolve from unstable to stable configurations. This game of cosmic billiards may have involved other stars that were once bound to HD 188753 and were subsequently ejected, or interloping stars in the crowded cluster environment.
| Source: http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1548_1.asp
Richard Reid USMC Retired
I think of a hero as someone who understands the degree of responsibility that comes with his/her freedom. |