By Ron Cowen
From the vantage point of a newly discovered planet 149 light-years from Earth, it isn’t hard to look on the bright side: Three suns grace the skies above this hot, Jupiterlike body. The planet tightly orbits the main star of a closely-knit trio of stars collectively known as HD 188753.
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A planet among a trio of stars isn’t merely a novelty. The orb’s very existence poses a challenge for how planets form, discoverer Maciej Konacki of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reports in the July 14 Nature.