Warped Planets

 We know how a solar system looks, vaguely. When a star is young, a protoplanetary disk forms around it that eventually clumps into planets. The disk is flat because of how momentum works, and it spins in the same direction, which is why all of our planets orbit the same way....the same direction their host star happens to spin.

We have found planets in retrograde orbits, in fact they're fairly common. The theory is that they're caused by near collisions between large planets that causes the planet's orbit to flip. Another thing which could cause this would be the capture of a "rogue" or nomad planet.

But the protoplanetary disk around GW Orionis is kind of weird...and it's weird because there are three stars.

GW Orionis has three disks, and one of them is, well, tilted. This could result in the eventual formation of planets that aren't level with the normal solar system, but orbit at an angle to it. In our system the largest tilt is Pluto, at 17 degrees, but that could be an Oort Cloud thing. Of the large planets, the largest orbital tilt is seven degrees...and that, perhaps interestingly, is Earth.

But we've also found large planets in highly tilted orbits close in (which GW Orionis' disks appear to be leading to), in orbits that more closely resemble those of comets...

Worldbuilders take note.