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TOI-178 is a star with a weird planetary system. It has six planets, and the outer five all orbit the star in a repeating pattern like music from a music box! https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-six-planet-system-dances-in-time-to-the-tune-of-gravity
2/ I mean that kinda literally. Watch this lovely animation showing the planets in orbit, playing a tone whenever they make a half or full orbit. It's mesmerizing.
3/ The planets orbit in resonance, meaning each one orbits in a simple fraction multiple of the one closer in. Say for every 6 times a planet orbits, the next one out orbits 3 times, and the next one after that 2. Their gravity on each other keeps them locked in this pattern.
4/ But it gets weirder. In our solar system, the inner planets are small, the outer ones big. For TOI-178, they're order is all mixed up! Big next to small, dense next to puffy. It's not at all clear how or why that happened.
5/ You might think interactions sent planets into different orbits, so they started out ordered but then got mixed up. But the resonance implies they settled into their current orbits very gently. At the moment it doesn't make sense.
6/ I mean, *something* made that system the way it is. For all we know this is a more common setup than our own system. Maybe *we're* the weird ones.
Or maybe it was aliens. Probably not though.
Or maybe it was aliens. Probably not though.
7/ We're finding more planetary systems all the time, and as we do we see more outliers, the ones that tell us how things can go differently. Those tell us a lot more about planetary dynamics, what can happen around the edges of what's normally seen.
8/8 *Are* we the weird ones? Maybe. Or maybe the Universe has rules that allow for a lot of diversity.
The more odd systems we find, the more inclined I am to think that's the case. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-six-planet-system-dances-in-time-to-the-tune-of-gravity
The more odd systems we find, the more inclined I am to think that's the case. https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/a-six-planet-system-dances-in-time-to-the-tune-of-gravity
