Skip to main content

Planet With Four Suns Discovered

Artist's illustration of PH1, a planet with four suns discovered by volunteers from the planethunters citizen science project


A planet with four suns has been identified by two "armchair astronomers".
The bright new world, just under 5,000 light years away, is believed to be six times the size of Earth.
It orbits one pair of stars and is in turn circled by a second pair. As a result, a total of four stars light up its skies.
A handful of planets are already known to orbit pairs of binary stars, but the new find is said to be unique.
"It's fascinating to try and imagine what it would be like to visit a planet with four suns in its sky, but this new world is confusing astronomers - it's not at all clear how it formed in such a busy environment," said Dr Chris Lintott, from Oxford University.
The planet was discovered by two US volunteers using the planethunters.org website operated by scientists including Dr Lintott. The website allows visitors to identify dips in the output of stars caused by their light being blocked by "transits" of orbiting stars.
Kian Jek, from San Francisco, and Robert Gagliano, from Cottonwood, Arizona, spotted the effect as the new planet passed in front of its suns.
A team of professional astronomers confirmed the find using the Keck telescopes on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The planet has been named PH1 after the planethunters website.
Dr Arfon Smith, from Adler Planetarium in Chicago, another member of the planethunters team, said: "It's an amazing discovery, but what's even more exciting is that, with more data currently being added to planethunters.org for anyone to explore, we really don't know what our armchair astronomers will discover next."
Details of the discovery were presented at the Division for Planetary Sciences meeting in Reno, Nevada.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

MISS EDEMAYA BEAUTY PAGEANT 2013

EdemAya, a community so rich in mineral resources, and one of the five clans that make up the present day Ikot Abasi Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria is hosting the world on the 29 th of March 2013. As we gathered from the head of the organizing group, Miss Precious Dominic Akpan, the event is scheduled to take place at the Cooperative Hall, Ikot Ubo Akama, Edemaya in Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State. Three beauties are to emerge from the event which promises to be the first ever organized pageant. The Eligibility Form which are currently on sale for a token of N 2,000 will qualify the contestants to struggle for Miss EdemAya, Miss Democracy of EdemAya and Miss Culture & Tourism of EdemAya. The screening and training of the contestants commences on 25 th through 28 th of March 2013. We have been reliably informed that the event will parade ‘who is who’ in the music industry in Akwa Ibom State and a popular reggae artist from Delta State. Imagine the sque...

Snoop Lion Excommunicated From The Rastafari Community

Snoop Lion excommunicated from the Rastafari Community, according to Bunny Wailer! Bunny has always had his doubts about  Snoop Lion ‘s intent and now his skepticism has taken an even stronger stance, that of excommunication. The news was broken via his  Facebook  profile and via  press release . Recently Snoop Lion has struggled to convince the Rastafari and Reggae community that he is sincere about his profession of, and transition to the faith, principles and beliefs of Rastafari. Most doubtful is Bunny Wailer the only living member of the original Wailer. ‘ Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive, suspend, or limit membership in a religious community or to restrict certain rights within it. Some groups use the term disfellowship instead, ‘ stated Bunny’s official release. With that said, this would surely deprive Snoop Lion from direct contact to some elders within the Rastafarian community also, access to vital information and place of wo...

VIDEO: Two Girls Stripped In Public For Stealing Brazilian Hair

These two young girls were stripped naked in public by a shop owner after they were caught stealing  Brazilian hair . According to information gathered, these girls entered  the shop  as if they were interested in purchasing something. One of the girl’s intentionally decided to engage the owner in a conversation by asking lot of questions on the types of  Brazilian  hairs at the store and then the other girl was busy stealing Brazilian hairs. Watch the video  below: