Scientists discover rare solar system with planets rotating in opposite direction of star

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Scientists have discovered a planetary system that has questioned mankind’s understanding of the universe. In the newly found solar system, two planets orbit in the opposite direction of the star.

Unlike in our solar system, where the sun and the planets all rotate in the same direction, the system works in reverse in this newly discovered solar system. Scientists believe this happens because of the presence of a second star in the vicinity of the planetary system.

The unique solar system was discovered by a team of researchers led by Maria Hjorth and Simon Albrecht from the Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Aarhus University, Denmark. Their findings were published in the science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The paper titled A backward-spinning star with two coplanar planets states that the two planets orbit in a direction nearly opposite to that of the star’s rotation around its own axis.

This is not the first time scientists have chanced upon such a unique system in the universe. Similar discoveries were made in the past too, but scientists were unable to explain what caused it.

A report by Phys Org quoted Princeton University’s Joshua Winn as saying: “This is not the first known case of a ‘backwards’ planetary system—the first ones were sighted more than 10 years ago. But this is a rare case in which we think we know what caused the drastic misalignment, and the explanation is different from what researchers have assumed might have happened in the other systems.”

However, in case of the K2-290 system, scientists could point out at a possible causal phenomenon.

The study read: “Here, we show that the star K2-290 A is tilted by 124 ± 6 degrees compared to the orbits of both of its known planets and has a wide-orbiting stellar companion that is capable of having tilted the protoplanetary disk.”

Rebekah Dawson, the co-author of the study explained: “In any planetary system, the planets are thought to form in a spinning, circular disk of material that swirls around a young star for a few million years after the star itself is born, the so-called protoplanetary disk. Usually, the disk and the star are spinning the same way. However, if there is a neighbouring star, the gravitational force from the neighboring star might tilt the disk.”

This means, in the K2-290 system, the planets are being pulled by the gravitational force of another star.