Astronomers spot amazing six-star system with three sets of eclipses

By Jonathan O’Callaghan

Astronomers have spotted a bizarre star system in which six stars orbit and eclipse each other when viewed from our solar system.

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), which is designed primarily to find exoplanets, Benjamin Montet at the University of New South Wales, Australia, and his colleagues observed the system known as TIC 168789840, located 1900 light years away.

TESS searches for alien worlds by looking for the dip in a star’s light when a planet passes in …