Multi-Star System 800 Light Years Away from Earth Excites Astronomers

A previously unseen cosmic phenomenon involving the formation of a system with multiple stars has astronomers excited.

The system is said to be 800 light years away from Earth and comprises a young star and three other cold but dense clouds of gas. Astronomers believe the gas clouds are dense enough to form stars in about 40,000 years. The system was observed in the past but details were only available recently thanks to modern telescopes available, The Washington Post reports. Researchers have never observed the formation of such a system before, which could answer some long standing questions.

"It seems like a simple question. Why is our sun a single star while the nearest star to us, Alpha Centauri, happens to be a triple system? There are competing models for how multiple star systems are born, but now we know a little more than we did before," said University of Massachusetts Amherst astrophysicist Stella Offner in a news release.

Existing theories about multi-star systems postulate that formation of such a system can happen when stars are in close proximity. Recent observations however show that such a system is possible even when stars are far apart. The four-star system's constituents are separated by several thousand times the distance between Earth and Sun.

The pictures that researchers captured and subsequent timelines for star formation indicate the existence of a four-star system which is unlikely to remain stable for long. UPI reports that the tension between the stars will eventually cause expulsion of one of them after a million years.

The findings have been published in the journal Nature.