The TESS space telescope, operated by the American space agency NASA, has discovered a new distant star system. According to Brian Powell, a data scientist at NASA's High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center, they have pinpointed its location despite numerous challenges. This star system is named TIC 168789840 and is located 1,900 light-years away from us.
Mr. Powell explained that this star system contains three binary star pairs orbiting around three different centers of mass, and these stars are gravitationally linked to each other, revolving around the galactic center as a single stellar system. It is worth noting that many of the star systems discovered by the TESS space telescope are triple or quadruple star systems. However, when TIC 168789840 was discovered, it puzzled scientists due to its mysterious blinking behavior.
The existence of systems with more than four stars is considered to be quite rare. Nonetheless, other six-star systems have been discovered. In fact, scientists struggle to identify such star systems as they pose challenges for the algorithms used to pinpoint stars. Currently, no exoplanets have been confirmed in this new star system. However, scientists know that two stars from the binary pairs in the system orbit extremely close to each other, forming their own unique quadruple subsystem. They believe any planets that might orbit this system could either be ejected far away by one of the four stars or swallowed by them.
As for the third binary star, it orbits the other two once every 2,000 years, creating the possibility for the existence of exoplanets. The formation of this hexagonal star system remains a mysterious puzzle, but it is exciting that it exists, and researchers hope to learn more data about star systems in the future.
