* Astronomy

Weird binary system spotted with three rings around two stars

Astronomers have never seen anything like it: two stars, each swaddled in planet-forming discs - and then a third, larger disc around the entire lot. Named IRS 43, the system is 400 light years away from Earth.
The cosmos is chock-full of stars surrounded by planets and planet-forming discs. It's also home to many binary systems in which each star has its own planetary disc - a rotating disc of gas and dust. We even know of a few planets that orbit both stars in binary systems, though these worlds are rare.
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