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If confirmed, candidate planet 2M1510 b would be the first in a polar orbit around two central brown dwarfs


A newly discovered planetary system, informally known as 2M1510, is among the strangest ever found. An apparent planet traces out an orbit that carries it far

But new measurements of this system, using the ESO (European Southern Observatory) Very Large Telescope in Chile, appear to reveal what scientists previously only imagined. The path of the brown dwarf pair’s 21-day mutual orbit is being subtly altered in a way that can only be explained, the study’s authors conclude, by a polar-orbiting planet. Twelve of those were found using NASA’s now-retired Kepler Space Telescope, the mission that takes the prize for the most transit detections (nearly 2,800).

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Photo of central brown dwarfs

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