Scientists find star system 'like a game of snooker'

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The 'snooker-like' star system discovered by researchers, artist's impression by the University of Warwick copyright of Mark A. Garlick
Image caption,
Researchers created an artist's impression of the star system they helped find

Astronomers at Warwick and Sheffield universities have discovered a star constellation which they say strongly resembles a game of snooker.

NN Serpentis is made of two binary stars - a red dwarf and a white dwarf - which orbit each other about 1,670 light years away from Earth.

Researchers said there were reasons to believe their behaviour was influenced by two giant, unseen, gas planets.

They compared the position of the planets and stars to a snooker frame.

An international team of scientists observed that the larger red dwarf eclipsed the white one at three hour and seven minute intervals.

'Vast shock'

Occasionally there were irregularities in their orbits, which they said had to be caused by the gravitational pull of two large planets, not detected by the astronomical camera the British scientists had helped to develop.

Professor Tom Marsh, from the University of Warwick's physics department, said: "The two gas giants have different masses but they may actually be roughly the same size as each other, and in fact will also be roughly the same size as the red dwarf star they orbit.


The bigger of the two gas giants is thought to be about six times the mass of Jupiter and orbits the binary star every 15-and-a-half years. The smaller planet orbits every seven-and-three-quarter years and is thought to be about 1.6 times the mass of Jupiter.



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