NASA scientists found yet another solar system that has defied their understanding of the universe, so it seems. This is because it has six stars, which are said to be similar to the Earth’s sun, yet they are able to exist together ‘in close proximity as three binary systems’ as they orbit one another in what looks like one giant assembly.
Although scientists have known of other sextuplet star systems in existence, this new system that has a triple-binary arrangement, and was recently named TIC 168789840, is said to be completely unique. It is also challenging the way that researchers understand how these sun-like stars develop so close to one another at their birth.
In an interview conducted by the New York Times with the study’s lead author, Brian Powell, who also happens to be one of the data scientists from NASA’s High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, he shares, “The system exists against the odds.”
They were able to discover this irregular star system using TESS, NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, which was launched into space back in 2018, already managing to find a number of exceptional discoveries since its first time in orbit.
This planet-hunting satellite happened to detect unexpected starlight despite being almost 1,900 light-years away, that happened to be brightening and dimming. And this led them to discover the unusual system of binary stars described as ‘three distinct stellar couplets that revolved around three separate centers of mass, with the entire trio remaining bound to one another gravitationally and circling a galactic center as one unified star system.’
Although this isn’t the first six-star system to be found, what make it incredibly different from the others is that the stars cross in front of and behind each other, causing them to eclipse the others, as seen by the TESS satellite. In fact, the New York Times even went on to share that what this means is that “scientists have found a sextuply eclipsing sextuple star system.”
Powell adds, “Just the fact that it exists blows my mind. I’d love to just be in a spaceship, park next to this thing and see it in person.”
But, aside from the fact that it is still technically impossible to do that exactly – since humans have yet to perfect travel through space – it is also notable that the conditions within this particular star system are so intense that exoplanets can’t even form in the first place. Out of the six sun-like bodies, four of them orbit so close to each other that if there was a planet attempting to form anywhere near them, it would be instantly enveloped and destroyed by two of the binaries.
However, according to research deemed acceptable by The Astronomical Journal, the other two stars are said to be at such a distance that there is technically a chance that there are some unfound worlds that could actually be orbiting them from a safe distance, away from the others two binary systems.
Astronomer and co-author of the study, Tamás Borkovits, of the Baja Astronomical Observatory in Hungary, shares that the scene of the night sky from the planets wouldn’t be like anything anyone on earth has seen before. He shares that one “could see two suns, just like Luke Skywalker on Tatooine” alongside the other four blazing stars as they make their way around the sky.
Although scientists are still not sure how the sextuple system formed in the first place, they have an idea that it was the first three stars that formed in motion first before they each created their own binary companion after having passed through some thick, dense cosmic gas.
But, unless scientists find another similar system that they can explore and check out, they won’t be able to know exactly how this star system came to be.
Regardless, for the TESS satellite to have found TIC 168789840 and tons of other incredibly and life-changing discoveries just proves that while the world has learned so much about the outer galaxies, there is still so much more to discover in the near future.
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