Reported in The Astronomical Journal (DOI: 10.3847/0004-6256/151/2/45), KELT-4Ab orbits one of the stars in a triple stellar system. Considered a "hot Jupiter" because of its large size and small orbit, it is only the fourth planet that has been found in association with a triple star system. KELT-4A is the brightest star in the system. KELT-4B and KELT-4C, separated from each other by about 10 astronomical units (AU), form a binary, about 328 AU distant from KELT-4A. The system is about 685 light-years from us.
The planet was detected in a survey by the Kilodegree Extremely Little Telescope. Scientific American has a story about the discovery.
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Three-Starred System Has Giant Planet
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(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2016, @10:28AM
Staying on this rock and controlling people is so much more rewarding for the sociopaths in charge.
Fuck space! Earth is the center of the universe, motherfuckers!!
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 07 2016, @03:32PM
If you're on a planet with 3 suns, do not drink the emperor! [wikia.com].
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 07 2016, @03:56PM
Obviously a pretty smart man - but he's not so hot with basic math - http://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Remembrance-Earths-Past-ebook/dp/B00IQO403K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1460044529&sr=1-1&keywords=cixin+liu+three+body+problem [amazon.com]
Three suns and a planet is actually a "Four Body Problem".
“I have become friends with many school shooters” - Tampon Tim Walz
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Thursday April 07 2016, @05:36PM
The mass of the planet is negligible over rather long time scales. It could have been analysed as restricted four body so he's not quite that far off. Here are some just-for-fun nitpicks by an extremely anal jerk (me):
I rather enjoyed the book but felt let down near the end.
P.S. Liu isn't really that bad at counting. The Trisolarans used their magic particles on his calculator.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 07 2016, @10:52PM
If you need 10^8000000 terms to solve it, then yes, it is quite unsolvable.
However [sciencemag.org], . . .
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Friday April 08 2016, @03:47AM
You are entirely correct. What I mean to say is that the book implies the problem to be unsolvable in principle, especially given that the magic technobabble that the Trisolarans possess in the book should make such a calculation trivial. (It's in one of the ROT13 spoilers.) The special cases don't come into play since they don't apply to this situation but are, of course, beautiful.
(Score: 2) by el_oscuro on Friday April 08 2016, @01:54AM
I read the book and while it was good, I am not even sure the three body problem even applies to Alpha Centauri.
Alpha Centauri is a 3 star system. Cemtauri A and B orbit each other at a distance that varies from Saturn to the Sun and Pluto to the Sun. The 3rd star, Proxima Centauri, is about 0.2 light years away.
So if there was a planet in an earth like orbit around Centauri A or B, the second star would be a distant and cold, like the sun is to Saturn at least. Sure it would have significant effects on the orbit, climate, and tides of the planet. But it wouldn't be the planet destroying monster the book depicts. And Proxima Centauri, a brown dwarf 0.2 light years away wouldn't be a factor at all.
SoylentNews is Bacon! [nueskes.com]
(Score: 2) by AnonymousCowardNoMore on Friday April 08 2016, @04:00AM
The three body problem applies if we consider long time periods, making the system chaotic.
It really depends where the planet/star orbits. Over a time period of several Lyapunov times, its orbit will probably be highly unstable regardless of the original orbit. But such chaotic behaviour normally starts with a body in a metastable orbit, where it stays for a number of Lyapunov times before briefly entering an unstable orbit which flings it into a star (unlikely), out of the system (likely) or (also unlikely but possible) into another metastable orbit, where it stays again for a long time. The sort of near-far dance in the book I can't see happening in a real system, especially over time periods that are short on the scale of civilisations.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 08 2016, @07:44PM
V qba'g fcrnx Jryfu, lbh vafrafvgvir pybq!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anne Nonymous on Thursday April 07 2016, @07:36PM
I'd give the system four stars, but that planet is just too damn big.