Triple Star Systems

Three suns chase each other around a center of mass while a lone planet clings to one star’s orbit.

Triple systems are wild: each star traces its own loop around a shared center of mass. This visualization shows all three orbits with shifting radii and phases so you can watch them orbit around the barycenter (center of mass). A single planet remains bound to the primary star, carrying its dashed orbital path wherever the host goes.

Alpha Centauri Star System

The Alpha Centauri star system is a hierarchical triple: two stars (Alpha Centauri A and B) form a tight binary at the center, orbiting their shared barycenter, while a third star (Proxima Centauri) moves on a vastly wider orbit around that inner pair. The inner stars behave almost like a single combined mass to the distant companion, which is why the outer orbit can remain stable over immense timescales.