Scientists Uncover Unique Polar Planet in Unprecedented Double Brown Dwarf System

A unique Milky Way exoplanet has been discovered, orbiting in a manner that goes over and under the poles of a pair of dim stars that are failing. Stellar systems develop from compressed, rotating disks of gas and dust where materials accumulate in the disk’s plane, leading to the creation of planets, moons, and asteroids surrounding a newly formed star. To date, only sixteen exoplanets have been confirmed to orbit a binary star system, and all previously known exoplanets navigate within the orbital plane of those stars, rather than over the poles. The discovery of these elusive planets adds great intrigue to this finding.

The researchers were already acquainted with the two celestial bodies around which this unusual planet revolves prior to its discovery. Using the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory in Chile, they originally identified the unusual pair in 2018, discovering them to be brown dwarfs—stellar objects lacking sufficient mass to initiate fusion. The peculiar nature of the system became evident after examining the binary pair further with the Very Large Telescope located at the Paranal Observatory in Chile.

Experts Discover the First Polar Planet in an Unusual Double-Brown-Dwarf System

The findings indicate that scientists have unveiled the most peculiar planetary system documented to date, home to the inaugural «polar planet» and a planet that orbits two stars. Often referred to as «failed stars,» brown dwarfs—celestial bodies that do not accumulate sufficient materials to achieve the necessary mass for hydrogen-helium fusion in their cores—serve as parental stars for exoplanet 2M1510 (AB). This revelation marks the first concrete proof of such a fully developed system.

Exoplanet 2M1510 (AB) b is identified as a «failed star,» as it does not possess enough mass to ignite the fusion process of hydrogen into helium within its core. The probability of stellar bodies forming binary systems increases with mass, rendering this double-brown-dwarf star system quite unexpected.

Uncommon Eclipsing Brown Dwarf Pair Hosts First Documented Polar-Orbit Planet

This represents only the second instance of discovering eclipsing brown dwarfs, indicating that one of the stars obscures the other when viewed from Earth. Team member Amaury Triaud from the University of Birmingham expressed that «the idea of a planet orbiting not just a binary system, but a binary composed of brown dwarfs, while also following a polar orbit, is truly astonishing and exhilarating.»

The discovery was fortuitous, as the observations were not specifically aimed at identifying such a planet or orbital configuration. This insight typically imparts a deeper understanding of what is feasible on the fascinating planet we reside on.