Space.com | 2016 Mar 30
[img3="This artist's concept of HD 1885 Ab, the first known planet to reside in a triple-star system, would have a similar sunset to KELT-4Ab. Both systems host a pair of stars distantly orbiting the planet-hosting single sun. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)"]http://www.space.com/images/i/000/054/4 ... 885-ab.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
Eat your heart out, Tatooine: A newly discovered alien planet has not one, not two, but three suns in its sky.
While scientists know of many planets with two suns, a planet with three bright stars in its sky is much rarer. The newly found distant world, known as KELT-4Ab, orbits one star. That star in turn is orbited by a nearby pair of stars. The twin stars are close enough to the planet to appear about as bright as the full moon in the sky, new research has revealed.
In addition to providing an example of a solar system very different from Earth's, the strange arrangement may help provide insight into how gas giants that lie close to their parent star — known as "hot Jupiters" — evolve.
KELT-4Ab: An inflated Hot Jupiter transiting the bright (V~10) component of a hierarchical triple - Jason D. Eastman et al
- Astronomical Journal 151(2):45 (2016 Feb) DOI: 10.3847/0004-6256/151/2/45
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1510.00015 > 30 Sep 2015