Two amateur astronomers discovered a planet with four suns in 2012, a finding confirmed by professional researchers using advanced telescopes.
Amateurs discover four-star planet
In October 2012, two volunteers of the Planet Hunters program, Kian Jek and Robert Gagliano, announced they had detected a planet orbiting four stars, a finding later published in the journal The Astrophysical Journal in 2013. This project, led by Yale University, allows the public to analyze data from NASA’s Kepler telescope to search for exoplanets.Public helps find unusual exoplanet
The Planet Hunters program gives volunteers the task of examining light curves—graphs that show changes in a star’s brightness over time. These variations can indicate the presence of an exoplanet when it passes in front of its star, temporarily dimming the light. However, detecting planets around multiple stars is more complex for automated systems.Unusual signal caught by volunteers
NASA’s software typically identifies regular brightness changes, but when multiple stars are involved, the data becomes harder to interpret. Jek and Gagliano noticed a pattern in this challenging data—regular dimming events that suggested a planet orbiting more than one star.Professional confirmation of discovery
Following the amateur astronomers’ report, professional researchers used the Keck telescopes in Hawaii to confirm the existence of the planet, named PH1. It is a gas giant slightly larger than Neptune, about six times the size of Earth, and takes 138 days to complete an orbit around two closely spaced stars.
