step out onto the surface of the planet 30 ari b in daylight and you would see not one, not two, not three suns in the sky   but a remarkable four stars, all of which are in its system the amazing discovery, the second of its kind, suggests that planets in four star systems are much more common in the universe than thought and studying the system could reveal the effect multiple stars can have on a planet   and whether they make them more likely to turn into 'hot jupiters' nasa astronomers in california have found a planet in a multi star system 30 ari b (illustration shown) has four stars in its system   two sets of binary stars in this image the primary star is in the foreground and its companion to the left, while the planet is in the middle and the other two stars are top right  the planet, studied by an international team of scientists led by nasa's jet propulsion laboratory (jpl), had previously been known to exist however, scientists had thought the planetary system had three stars   not four the newfound four star planetary system, called 30 ari, is located 136 light years away in the constellation aries the primary star is known as 30 ari b (upper case), and the planet is 30 ari b (lower case) the system's gaseous planet is enormous, with 10 times the mass of jupiter, and it orbits its primary star every 335 days the primary star has a relatively close partner star, which the planet does not orbit this pair, in turn, is locked in a long distance orbit with another pair of stars about 1,670 astronomical units away   one astronomical unit is the distance between earth and the sun astronomers think it's highly unlikely that this planet, or any moons that might circle it, could sustain life the exoplanet, a gas giant, orbits its primary 'yellow' star in about an earth year's time its primary star, called 30 ari b, orbits the newly discovered small 'red dwarf' star this pair of stars is itself locked in a long distance orbit with another pair of stars, known as 30 ari a the fourth star, found using instruments fitted to the palomar observatory in san diego, marks only the second time a planet has been identified in a quadruple star system the first four star planet, kic 4862625, was discovered in 2013 by citizen scientists using public data from nasa's kepler mission this latest discovery is important, though, because it suggests that one in 25 sun like stars are in a quadruple system, whereas previously they were thought to be much rarer 'about four per cent of solar type stars are in quadruple systems, which is up from previous estimates because observational techniques are steadily improving,' said co author dr andrei tokovinin of the cerro tololo inter american observatory in chile the four stars and one planet of the 30 ari system are illustrated in this diagram this quadruple star system consists of two pairs of stars: 30 ari b and 30 ari a the gas giant planet (red), 30 ari b (lower case), orbits one of the stars in 30 ari b about once a year the newly discovered star is shown in green  were it possible to see the skies from this particular world, the four parent stars would look like one small sun and two very bright stars that would be visible in daylight this is not the case for all multi star systems; in some, the other stars are so distant and dim that they would only be visible at night one of the stars in sky of 30 ari b, if viewed with a large enough telescope, would be revealed to be a binary system, or two stars orbiting each other in recent years, dozens of planets with two or three parent stars have been found, including those with 'tatooine' sunsets reminiscent of the star wars movies finding planets with multiple parents isn't too much of a surprise, though, as binary stars are more common in our galaxy than single stars 'star systems come in myriad forms there can be single stars, binary stars, triple stars, even quintuple star systems,' said dr lewis roberts of jpl, lead author of the new findings appearing in the journal astronomical journal the fourth star, found using instruments fitted to the palomar observatory (pictuerd) in san diego, marks only the second time a planet has been identified in a quadruple star system the first four star planet, kic 4862625, was discovered in 2013 by citizen scientists using public data from nasa's kepler mission  'it's amazing the way nature puts these things together' the newly discovered fourth star in the ari 30 system is a companion of the primary star the planet orbits, and lies at a distance of 23 astronomical units from the planet   about the distance of uranus to our own sun however, despite it being relatively close, the newfound star does not appear to have impacted the orbit of the planet the exact reason for this is uncertain, so the team is planning further observations to better understand the orbit of the star and its complicated family dynamics in addition to this discovery, made by studying hundreds of stars each night for stellar companions, the astronomers also identified a triple star system called hd 2638 a planet in this trio of stars is a hot jupiter that circles its primary star tightly, completing one lap every three days scientists already knew this primary star was locked in a gravitational tango with another star, about 07 light years away, or 44,000 astronomical units that's relatively far apart for a pair of stellar companions the latest discovery is of a third star in the system, which orbits the primary star from a distance of 28 astronomical units   close enough to have influenced the hot jupiter's development and final orbit 'this result strengthens the connection between multiple star systems and massive planets,' said roberts
nasa california ari discovery 4%
nasa astronomers in california have found a planet in a multi star system . 30 ari b has four stars in its system   two sets of binary stars . all four stars would be visible from the planet, even in daylight . but its highly unlikely that the planet or any moons it has could host life . discovery suggests that 4% of sun like stars are in quadruple systems 