Strange planets nicknamed BEASTies are unlikely to have formed around their current stars. They may have been stolen from other stars or captured from deep space
Artist’s impression of a gas giant on a distant orbit around a massive star
Mark Garlick
Giant stars stealing planets from smaller stars could explain why a strange trio of planets are in orbits that they shouldn’t be.
B-type stars are extremely hot stars more than three times as massive as the sun. Astronomers didn’t think they could host planets. Then, in late 2021 and early 2022, a survey called the B-star Exoplanet Abundance Study (BEAST) found three huge planets on wide orbits around B-type stars.
“These planets are where they’re not …