Four-Star System Composed of Two Binary Twins

Four stars--two sets of binaries orbit each other in one system. These stars are each about half the mass of sol, and each are only 500 million years old--compared to about 4.5 billion years for Sol.As in the drawing, the two pairs orbit their mutual center of mass at a distance roughly that of Jupiter's orbit around Sol.

Up to half of all observable star systems are binaries. Systems with three or more stars are more rare. But there is a lot about star system formation that humans do not know.

In fact, there is much about our own star, Sol, that we do not know.

Speaking of Sol, Danny Boyle's science fiction extravaganza "Sunshine" has just become available in stores. I intend to add it to my collection fairly promptly. Just like the movie Idiocracy, the movie Sunshine was barely marketed to the public before release. And like Idiocracy, Sunshine is likely to become a cult classic.