The last three years I've been involved in educating myself on the history of science and physics which has been truly fascinating.
It wasn't until I saw the very good Netflix series 3 Body Problem, based on a series of books by author Liu Cixin, that I first heard of such a thing.
Now astronomers have identified a four body system.
Astronomers have identified a rare, tightly bound star system in which an eclipsing binary—two stars that pass in front of each other from our perspective—also eclipses a third star, while a fourth star orbits farther out.
The international group of astronomers that made the discovery say it’s the most compact quadruple star system ever found, as the outermost star, orbiting the inner three, has the shortest period ever recorded. The study, published Tuesday in Nature, provides a closer look at the weird and chaotic world of hierarchical star systems.
Open thread.
