Can the planets move at right angles to each other? In our solar system, no, they all orbit on the thick plane, but outside there is such a collection of oddities and monsters that this too can be discovered.
The study of exoplanetary systems shows that young planets can frequently migrate radially, changing their distance from the star and interacting with the other bodies of the same system. This phenomenon can also affect the inclination of the orbital angle, if the disk of gas and dust from which the planets are forming – the protoplanetary disk – is deformed or tilted, or as a consequence of the gravitational interaction between the system and the stars. neighbors, or between the planets themselves during migration processes.
Now a team of researchers, which also includes astronomers from the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (Inaf), observing with an innovative approach the HD 3167 system, located about 155 light years away from Earth, has discovered that there is there at least one planet that follows an equatorial orbit and at least another that moves on a polar orbit instead. Giusi Micela (INAF of Palermo) comments: “The contemporary existence of planets with aligned and non-aligned orbits is a unique case among known exoplanets, and probably a rare combination that suggests a complex dynamic history”. Yep, there’s really everything out there.