The universe may be haunted by more triple-star "vampire" systems than previously thought, new research in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society suggests.
The new research looks at the evolution of a mysterious kind of star called type-Be stars. These stars, a subset of the bright and ordinary type-B stars, spin very fast and sport rings of orbiting matter, neither of which have been conclusively explained. By analyzing high-precision data from the Gaia and Hipparcos satellites, researchers at the University of Leeds in the UK have now shown that the strange features of Be's could be explained by the influence of two additional, companion stars orbiting the main star in many Be systems.
