<p>Researchers using Adaptive Optics System developed by Indian scientists at Pune-based Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics have discovered a new exoplanet with four stars.</p>.<p><br />The four-star planetary system, called 30 Ari, is located 136 light-years away in the constellation Aries.<br /><br />This is only the second time that a planet has been identified in a quadruple star system.<br />The first four-star planet, KIC 4862625, was discovered in 2013 by citizen scientists using public data from NASA's Kepler mission.<br /><br />Earlier, the planet that is 10 times the mass of Jupiter was thought to have only three stars, not four.</p>.<p><br />"About four percent of solar-type stars are in quadruple systems, which is up from previous estimates because observational techniques are steadily improving," said Andrei Tokovinin of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile and co-author.<br /><br />The gaseous planet orbits its primary star every 335 days.<br />The primary star has a relatively close partner star, which the planet does not orbit.<br />This pair, in turn, is locked in a long-distance orbit with another pair of stars about 1,670 astronomical units away.<br /><br />This is an astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun.<br />It is highly unlikely that this planet, or any moons that might circle it, could sustain life.<br />By using the automated Robo-AO system on Palomar Observatory to scan the night skies, researchers found two candidates hosting exoplanets: the four-star system 30 Ari, and a triple-star planetary system called HD 2638.<br /><br />The findings were confirmed using the higher-resolution PALM-3000 instrument, also at Palomar Observatory.<br /><br />"This result strengthens the connection between multiple star systems and massive planets," concluded Lewis Roberts of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and lead author.</p>.<p><br />The findings appeared in Astronomical Journal.<br /></p>
<p>Researchers using Adaptive Optics System developed by Indian scientists at Pune-based Inter-University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics have discovered a new exoplanet with four stars.</p>.<p><br />The four-star planetary system, called 30 Ari, is located 136 light-years away in the constellation Aries.<br /><br />This is only the second time that a planet has been identified in a quadruple star system.<br />The first four-star planet, KIC 4862625, was discovered in 2013 by citizen scientists using public data from NASA's Kepler mission.<br /><br />Earlier, the planet that is 10 times the mass of Jupiter was thought to have only three stars, not four.</p>.<p><br />"About four percent of solar-type stars are in quadruple systems, which is up from previous estimates because observational techniques are steadily improving," said Andrei Tokovinin of the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile and co-author.<br /><br />The gaseous planet orbits its primary star every 335 days.<br />The primary star has a relatively close partner star, which the planet does not orbit.<br />This pair, in turn, is locked in a long-distance orbit with another pair of stars about 1,670 astronomical units away.<br /><br />This is an astronomical unit is the distance between Earth and the sun.<br />It is highly unlikely that this planet, or any moons that might circle it, could sustain life.<br />By using the automated Robo-AO system on Palomar Observatory to scan the night skies, researchers found two candidates hosting exoplanets: the four-star system 30 Ari, and a triple-star planetary system called HD 2638.<br /><br />The findings were confirmed using the higher-resolution PALM-3000 instrument, also at Palomar Observatory.<br /><br />"This result strengthens the connection between multiple star systems and massive planets," concluded Lewis Roberts of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and lead author.</p>.<p><br />The findings appeared in Astronomical Journal.<br /></p>