Planet With Four Stars Discovered

Posted on October 15, 2012

A planet with four stars has been discovered. The planet orbits one pair of stars and has a second pair of stars revolving around it. The planet's skies are illuminated by four stars. The discovery was made by volunteers using Planethunters.org alongside a team led by astronomers from Oxford University, Yale University, and Adler Planetarium. The planet has been dubbed PH1 after Planethunters.org.

An artist's illustration of PH1 is pictured above. It shows PH1 transiting the larger of the two eclipsing stars it orbits. Off in the distance the second pair of stars bound to the planetary system can be seen. The second pair of stars is located at a distance of 1000 AU (about 1000 times the distance between Earth and the Sun) from PH1.

PH1 is located about 5,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cygnus. It is a gas giant slightly larger than Neptune with a radius ove six times that of Earth.

Dr Chris Lintott, of Oxford University, one of the Planethunters.org team, said in a release, "It's fascinating to try and imagine what it would be like to visit a planet with four Suns in its sky, but this new world is confusing astronomers - it's not at all clear how it formed in such a busy environment."

Yale also has a press release about PH1 here.



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