Due to chaos, it was long thought that planets couldn’t stably orbit systems containing three stars. GW Orionis is the first counterexample.

Key Takeaways

• It’s easy to have planets that orbit around a single star, and in a double star system, you can either orbit close to one star or far from both members. 

• These configurations are stable, but adding a third star into the mix was thought to render the formation of planets unstable, as mutual gravitational interactions would eventually force their ejection. 

• That wisdom got thrown out the window with the discovery of GW Orionis, which boasts multiple massive dust rings and possibly even more planets, all orbiting three stars at once.