OUT OF THIS WORLD

Planet With 4 Suns Discovered

Found by volunteers on a website.

Let’s hope those aliens have some strong SPF. Astronomers have discovered a planet that has four different suns, the first known example of such a phenomenon. The planet is named PH1 because it was discovered in part by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website. PH1 circles a pair of stars, but is remarkable for having another pair of stars revolving around it. “All four stars pulling on it creates a very complicated environment,” Dr. Chris Lintott of the University of Oxford says. “Yet there it sits in an apparently stable orbit.” But maybe it needs all those light sources—the planet is about six times the size of Earth.