The Los Angeles Times reports on research published in The Astronomical Journal.
Astronomers have discovered a giant planet with four suns just 125 light-years from Earth. The planet is at least 10 times as big as Jupiter and scientists say it probably has no actual surface to stand on. But, if you could fly a spacecraft into its atmosphere and look up, you would see one primary sun, a bright red dot, and another star shining more brightly than Venus does in our night sky. ...
In a paper published in the Astronomical Journal, the researchers describe Ari 30 as a pair of binary systems. A large planet travels around the star known as 30 Ari B, taking about 355 days to complete its orbit. The newly discovered star is locked in a gravitational dance with 30 Ari B from a distance of less than 30 astronomical units away. (One astronomical unit is the distance between the sun and the Earth).
About 1,670 astronomical units away lie another pair of stars in a system known as 30 Ari A. The two binary systems orbit a central mass that lies in between them.
Only one other planet in a quadruple star system has been discovered before, but Roberts said that more may soon be detected.
[Editor's Note: For comparison purposes consider that Neptune orbits the Sun at an average distance of 30.1 astronomical units. See, too, this table of distances from the Sun in AU: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomical_unit#Examples.]
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday March 06 2015, @12:25AM
Nothing. Thank god.
These are interesting to know about, but nearly forgotten as soon as mentioned.
10 times the size of Jupiter? Seem like a star itself - but "failed to launch"...
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 06 2015, @12:33AM
Thanks for that breaking news I guess. He's in fair condition.
I was thinking of that. Looks like it's close:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_dwarf [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday March 06 2015, @03:19AM
And quickly realize that you practically flew into a star! It has to be quickly because your crew might come for you before the ship succumbs.
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(Score: 4, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Friday March 06 2015, @06:54AM
No need to stand on the surface of that gas giant planet. At ten times the mass of Jupiter it's bound to have a lot of satellites, possibly even a few big enough to hold an atmosphere.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2015, @03:12PM
Unfortunately the radiation bands around the planet will likely render every satellite inhospitable. It would provide a surface to see the stars in the system but you'd either need thick radiation shielding or it'd be a one-way trip.
(Score: 2) by Foobar Bazbot on Friday March 06 2015, @04:59PM
Well, at over 130 ly distant, the only presently conceivable methods of getting there in one lifetime (generation ships being a one-way trip by definition) would require some serious radiation shielding anyhow.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday March 06 2015, @09:14AM
Wouldn't being on this planet mess with you through means of gravity? Four different stars that pulls on you in a semi chaotic manner?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Friday March 06 2015, @11:04AM
Well, the planet's moving crazy fast any way you look at it. It's at a distance of 30 AU from the two stars it orbits, which is comparable to the size of Neptune's orbit. Its year however is only 355 earth days, while Neptune's year is 164 earth years! Its orbit has a circumference of 2π(30 AU) ≈ 200 AU, or about 30 billion km in circumference. 355 days is about 30,000,000 seconds, so the planet must have an average orbital velocity of nearly 1000 km/s. For comparison, Neptune moves at a glacial 5 km/s, and even Mercury is only at 47 km/s. It's 0.3% of the speed of light!
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by sudo rm -rf on Friday March 06 2015, @12:38PM
I *think* there is some confusion in TFA. I'll try to clear it up, as far as my understanding allows...
1. The two star systems were thought to be a single star system (30 Arietis B) and a binary system (30 Arietis A) orbiting their common center of mass.
2. In 2005, an exoplanet was discovered (30 Ari Bb [wikipedia.org]), that has an orbital period of ~335 Earth days, at a distance of roughly 1AU
3. Now astronomers claim to have found a second star orbiting the until-now-single-star (30 Ari B).
4. That makes 30 Arietis a quadruple star system.
5.
ProfitWhat that means in the end, is this is the second quadruple star system identified to have planet(s)Here's NASAs [nasa.gov] take on it (last paragraph)
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday March 06 2015, @02:53PM
Never mind the gravity. With Four stars I wouldn't know whether I am supposed to be going to sleep or waking up. No business could ever survive there because no one would know when to actually wake up for work. Its always day! Be awesome for beaches though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 06 2015, @03:09PM
The other pair of binaries is about 10 light days away so the light from them isn't going to be anything appreciable.