So if the star ends up taking a swing closer than usual to the other two stars or closer than usual to the planet, it will tend to have a much larger effect upon that planet's orbit warping it enough to cause an impact that otherwise might not have taken place. This could very well cause interplantary collisions and asteroidal confrontations that would normally not happen in a single-star solar system like our own.

If that system was like our own, you would be right. The degree of magnitude of pull on the orbit of any celestial being would be much, much less. I don't think they're comparable in the way you're suggesting based on the combined gravitational pull of three stars.

There's no "tug of war". There are orbital preturbations on Earth caused by Jupiter and every other body in the Solar System. These existed since the system formed, and nowdays Jupiter's are the largest because it is by far the most massive of the planets and is relatively close to us. Back in the days before the impact that gave birth to the Moon, the impacting planet might have gotten close enough to perturb more the Earth's orbit than Jupiter, but since then, the big perturber has always been Jupiter.

These perturbations don't "pull the Earth out of its orbit" either. In fact, the notion that the Earth follows a perfect ellipse around the Sun is wrong. The Earth (and any other planet) follows a path that is always changing and that after a large number of revolutions defines a region of space with the shape of a donut.

The Earth gets pulled in by Jupiter every time it passes it, which happens more or less every 13 months. When that happens near the aphelion, every 12 years or so (Jupiter's orbital period) the pull is slightly larger, and therefore the perturbation is also slightly larger. But the keyword here is "slightly". Nothing that could be described by "tug-of-war"; not by a long shot.

Is this true and if it is what exactly pulls us back into orbit and what if we were'nt pulled back then what?

Jupiter in our solar system gets into a 'tug of
war' with the sun every 12 years.
When that happens the 'Earth' gets pulled out
of its orbit for about two to three days, then it
returns.
I kind of doubt there is a third star, but ya
never know..
I think, instead there were two stable orbits
around the binary stars' and they were just
naturally on a collision coarse- like the Earth,
billions of years ago, when a Mars size
object (might have) hit the earth creating our moon.

That's from the flash of the camera, duh!

I also am amazed at the capabilities of said camera to capture both the surface features of the binary stars and the background stars. Contrast be damned!

Maybe it is because I don't understand the science or analysis of data, but I was thinking more along the lines of http://www.astronomycast.com/LIVE/nancy-atkinson/aas/invading-stars-faster-than-speeding-bullet/ neutron star or micro black hole. If one considers the age since the collision and factor in the distance one of these ultra high speed stellar objects is it not possible that are no longer in the area of data collection.

Feel free to poke hole in my suggestions.

@ Ian And Kevin F: The artists depiction should be right, the two stars giving off light in the background are lighting up only a portion of the Earth-like planet, while most of it that we can see is shaded as if to be darkened. As well, isn't it feasible that due to the impact and that there is basically molten lava exploding everywhere from the impact that it would slightly light up part of the planet that we can see?

To be honest, I think Zuckerman was specifically looking for a third star as there is a high chance (70%) that there is one. Add this to the fact that exoplanets are still pretty tough to find, a star survey seems like the best bet…

But don't quote me on that

Cheers, Ian

… apart from the backlighting coming from nowhere and the impossible geometry of the suns and daysides, that is.

I am wondering if the conference that you attended considered this possibility?

Ever dropped a hard-boiled egg? the shell is fragmented on the impacting side, but the rest of the shell retains its shape. Also, it didn't bounce – impact energy was absorbed by the semi-hard yolk. But then again, if you threw the egg very hard at the floor, it would explode…. so it all depends on velocity.

As pointed out by Matthias, if the two bodies are travelling faster than the speed of sound, it could be that the two planets in the above image will explode, but it can't do that until energy has traversed through the system…

That's my thoughts anyhow So, yes, the image does appear to be accurate.

Cheers, Ian