Kepler-56, a star some 1,670 light-years away, sports a pair of planets following orbits with a rakish tilt. Typically, planet orbits are aligned with a star's equator, give or take a few degrees. Oddballs exist, but it is unprecedented that both of Kepler-56's confirmed planets are orbiting at a 45-degree tilt.
Why such a large tilt? They could have been born that way if a passing star disturbed Kepler-56's initial protoplanetary disk, astronomers suggest. Or the change could have come after the planets formed, a result of gravitational disturbances from a passing star. Hints of a mystery object much farther out than the two confirmed planets could hold an answer.
