4 parent stars 'reared' 1 massive planet, NASA says

4 parent stars 'reared' 1 massive planet, NASA says

(Courtesy of Karen Teramura/NASA)


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PASADENA, Calif. — Our planet only has one star to give it light, but others have many more.

The discovery of a planet with four parent stars was announced by NASA Wednesday. Two pairs of twin stars are part of the 30 Ari system, which includes just one massive planet. This is the second time a quadruple star system has been identified, according to NASA.

“Were it possible to see the skies from this world, the four parent stars would look like one small sun and two very bright stars that would be visible in daylight,” a statement from NASA reads. “One of those stars, if viewed with a large enough telescope, would be revealed to be a binary system, or two stars orbiting each other.”

The planet at the heart of the system has a mass that is 10 times larger than Jupiter, according to NASA. It reported that the planet takes 335 days to orbit its primary star, which has a “partner” star that the planet does not orbit. Those two stars, in turn, orbit a second pair of stars that are 1,670 astronomical units away, researchers said.

These four-star systems might not be as rare as previously thought, according to researchers. They estimated that as many as 4 percent of solar-type stars could be in quadruple systems.

It is not unusual to find planets with more than one sun, according to researchers.

“In recent years, dozens of planets with two or three parent stars have been found, including those with ‘Tatooine’ sunsets reminiscent of the ‘Star Wars’ movies,” the statement from NASA reads. “Finding planets with multiple parents isn't too much of a surprise, considering that binary stars are more common in our galaxy than single stars.”

The first quadruple system was discovered in 2013, according to NASA.

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