When stars play planetary pinball
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - 10:02
in Astronomy & Space
Many of us remember playing pinball at the local arcade while growing up; it turns out that some stars like it as well. Binary stars can play tug-of-war with an unfortunate planet, flinging it into a wide orbit that allows it to be captured by first one star and then the other, in effect bouncing it between them before it is eventually flung out into deep space.