Astronomers Amazed to Identify ‘Cosmic Triplets’ Hiding in Plain Sight Beyond Neptune For decades, astronomers have mopped ...

Floating around at the edge of the Solar System are leftovers from its formation. This is the Kuiper Belt, which is composed ...

New research suggests that a binary pair of Kuiper Belt objects, known as the Altjira system, is actually made up of three ...

The Kuiper Belt is a vast region beyond Neptune filled with icy remnants from the early solar system. Over 3,000 KBOs have been discovered so far, with scientists estimating hundreds of thousands more ...

One object in the Kuiper Belt, known as Altjira, is the the focus of this study. Over the last 10 years, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken pictures of Altjira and a 2011 study found that it appears ...

Astronomers have discovered what they believed to be a rare stable trio of gravitationally bound Kuiper Belt objects, ...

An illustration of the 148780 Altjira system of two or maybe three asteroids. Inset: the Hubble Space Telescope | Credit: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI) If it is confirmed as a triplet, ...

M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. If confirmed as the second such three-body system found in the region, the 148780 Altjira system suggests there could be similar triples waiting to be discovered ...

If it is confirmed as a triplet, the system — designated 148780 Altjira — could offer scientists a chance to improve their models of how three gravitationally bound bodies move through space ...

M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. If confirmed as the second such three-body system found in the region, the 148780 Altjira system suggests there could be similar triples waiting to be discovered ...