Inspired by writer Liu Cixin, Chinese scientists spot signals from real-world ‘three-body’ star system
- Phenomenon popularised by science fiction writer Liu Cixin is common in our galaxy but hard to study
- Research sheds light on complex behaviour of three stars that can be seen at the head of the constellation Orion
The scientists – from Hangzhou Dianzi University, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and China Three Gorges University – used Nasa observation data to look for periodic changes in the brightness of the three stars, collectively known as GW Ori.
The resulting study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science China Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, offers key evidence for the geometric structure and evolution of the triple-star system, according to lead researcher Tian Haijun.
Liu’s novel is based on a physics problem which many scientists believe is insoluble – how to predict the motion of three bodies in relation to each other, when a system of more than two bodies quickly becomes chaotic.
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Tian, from Hangzhou Dianzi University, and his colleagues studied data from Nasa’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to track the GW Ori system, made up of two stars orbiting each other while a third, more distant star, orbits the pair.