 | This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(January 2022) |
 TESS satellite | |
| Names | Explorer 95 TESS MIDEX-7 |
|---|---|
| Mission type | Space observatory[1][2] |
| Operator | NASA / MIT |
| COSPAR ID | 2018-038A |
| SATCATno. | 43435 |
| Website | tess tess |
| Mission duration | 2 years (planned) 7 years, 7 months, 5 days(in progress) |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Explorer XCV |
| Spacecraft type | Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite |
| Bus | LEOStar-2/750[3] |
| Manufacturer | Orbital ATK |
| Launch mass | 362 kg (798 lb)[4] |
| Dimensions | 3.7 × 1.2 × 1.5 m (12.1 × 3.9 × 4.9 ft) |
| Power | 530watts |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 18 April 2018, 22:51:30UTC[5] |
| Rocket | Falcon 9 Block 4B1045-1 |
| Launch site | Cape Canaveral,SLC-40 |
| Contractor | SpaceX |
| Entered service | 25 July 2018 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric orbit |
| Regime | Highly elliptical orbit |
| Perigee altitude | 108,000 km (67,000 mi) |
| Apogee altitude | 375,000 km (233,000 mi) |
| Inclination | 37.00° |
| Period | 13.70 days |
.png){kind=logo} TESS satellite mission patch | |
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is aspace telescope forNASA'sExplorer program, designed to search forexoplanets using thetransit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by theKepler mission.[6] It was launched on 18 April 2018, atop aFalcon 9 launch vehicle and was placed into ahighly elliptical 13.70-day orbit around theEarth.[6][2][7][8][9] Thefirst light image from TESS was taken on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.[1][10][11]
In the two-year primary mission, TESS was expected to detect about 1,250 transiting exoplanets orbiting the targetedstars, and an additional 13,000 orbiting stars not targeted but observed.[12] After the end of the primary mission around 4 July 2020, scientists continued to search its data for more planets, while theextended missions acquires additional data. As of 1 July 2025[update], TESS had identified 7,655 candidate exoplanets, of which 638 had been confirmed.[13]
The primary mission objective for TESS was tosurvey thebrightest stars near the Earth for transiting exoplanets over a two-year period. The TESS satellite uses an array of wide-field cameras to perform a survey of 85% of the sky. With TESS, it is possible to study the mass, size, density and orbit of a large cohort of small planets, including a sample ofrocky planets in thehabitable zones of their host stars. TESS provides prime targets for further characterization by theJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as well as other large ground-based and space-based telescopes of the future. While previous sky surveys with ground-based telescopes have mainly detected giant exoplanets and theKepler space telescope has mostly found planets around distant stars that are too faint for characterization, TESS finds many small planets around the nearest stars in the sky. TESS records the nearest and brightestmain sequence stars hosting transiting exoplanets, which are the most favorable targets for detailed investigations.[14] Detailed information about such planetary systems withhot Jupiters makes it possible to better understand the architecture of such systems.[15][16]
The program is led by theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) withseed funding fromGoogle.[17] On 5 April 2013, it was announced that TESS, along with theNeutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), had been selected by NASA for launch.[18][19] On 18 July 2019, after the first year of operation, the southern portion of the survey was completed, and the northern survey was started. The primary mission ended with the completion of the northern survey on 4 July 2020, which was followed by the first extended mission. The first extended mission concluded in September 2022 and the spacecraft entered its second extended mission[20] which should last for another three years.
The concept of TESS was first discussed in 2005 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO).[21] The genesis of TESS was begun during 2006, when a design was developed from private funding by individuals, Google, andThe Kavli Foundation.[22] In 2008, MIT proposed that TESS become a full NASA mission and submitted it for theSmall Explorer program atGoddard Space Flight Center,[22] but it was not selected.[23] It was resubmitted in 2010 as anExplorer program mission, and was approved in April 2013 as a Medium Explorer mission.[24][22][25] TESS passed itscritical design review (CDR) in 2015, allowing production of the satellite to begin.[22] While Kepler had cost US$640 million at launch, TESS cost only US$200 million (plus US$87 million for launch).[26][27] The mission will find exoplanets that periodically block part of the light from their host stars, events called transits. TESS will survey 200,000 of the brightest stars near theSun to search for transiting exoplanets. TESS was launched on 18 April 2018, aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch vehicle.
In July 2019, an Extended Mission 2020 to 2022 was approved.[28] On 3 January 2020, NASA reported that TESS had discovered its firstpotentially habitable Earth-sized planet,TOI-700 d.[29]
TESS is designed to carry out the first spaceborneall-skytransiting exoplanet survey.[18][30] It is equipped with four wide-angle telescopes and associatedcharge-coupled device (CCD) detectors. Science data are transmitted to Earth every two weeks. Full-frame images with an effective exposure time of two hours are transmitted as well, enabling scientists to search for unexpected transient phenomena, such as the optical counterparts togamma-ray bursts. TESS also hosts a Guest Investigator program, allowing scientists from other organizations to use TESS for their own research. The resources allocated to Guest programs allow an additional 20,000 celestial bodies to be observed.[31]
TESS uses a novel highly elliptical orbit around the Earth with anapogee approximately at the distance of the Moon and aperigee of 108,000 km (67,000 mi). TESS orbits Earth twice during the time the Moon orbits once, a 2:1resonance with the Moon.[32] The orbit is expected to remain stable for a minimum of ten years.
In order to obtain unobstructed imagery of both thenorthern andsouthern hemispheres of the sky, TESS utilizes a 2:1lunarresonant orbit called P/2, an orbit that has never been used before (althoughInterstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) uses a similar P/3 orbit). Thehighly elliptical orbit has a 375,000 km (233,000 mi) apogee, timed to be positioned approximately 90° away from the position of the Moon to minimize itsdestabilizing effect. This orbit should remain stable for decades and will keep TESS's cameras in a stable temperature range. The orbit is entirely outside theVan Allen belts to avoid radiation damage to TESS, and most of the orbit is spent far outside the belts. Every 13.70 days at its perigee of 108,000 km (67,000 mi), TESS transmits the data it collected during its most recent orbit back to earth via itsdownlink. This transmission occurs over a period of approximately three hours.[33]
TESS's two-year all-sky survey would focus on nearbyG-,K-, andM-typestars withapparent magnitudes brighter than magnitude 12.[34] Approximately 500,000 stars were to be studied, including the 1,000 closestred dwarfs across the whole sky,[35][36] an area 400 times larger than that covered by theKepler mission. TESS was expected to find more than 3,000 transiting exoplanet candidates, including 500Earth-sized planets andsuper-Earths.[35] Of those discoveries, an estimated 20 were expected to be super-Earths located in thehabitable zone around a star.[37] The stated goal of the mission was to determine the masses of at least 50 Earth-sized planets (at most 4 times Earth radius). Most detected exoplanets are expected to be between 30 and 300 light-years away.
The survey was broken up into 26 observation sectors, each sector being 24° × 96°, with an overlap of sectors at the ecliptic poles to allow additional sensitivity toward smaller and longer-period exoplanets in that region of the celestial sphere. The spacecraft will spend two 13.70-day orbits observing each sector, mapping the southern hemisphere of sky in its first year of operation and the northern hemisphere in its second year.[38] The cameras actually take images every 2 seconds, but all the raw images would represent much more data volume than can be stored or downlinked. To deal with this, cutouts around 15,000 selected stars (per orbit) will becoadded over a 2-minute period and saved on board for downlink, while full-frame images will also be coadded over a 30-minute period and saved for downlink. The actual data downlinks will occur every 13.70 days near perigee.[39] This means that during the 2 years, TESS will continuously survey 85% of the sky for 27 days, with certain parts being surveyed across multiple runs. The survey methodology was designed such that the area that will be surveyed, essentially continuously, over an entire year (351 observation days) and makes up about 5% of the entire sky, will encompass the regions of sky (near the ecliptic poles) which will be observable at any time of year with theJames Webb Space Telescope (JWST).[40]
In October 2019,Breakthrough Listen started a collaboration with scientists from the TESS team to look for signs of advanced extraterrestrial life. Thousands of new planets found by TESS will be scanned for "technosignatures" by Breakthrough Listen partner facilities across the globe. Data from TESS monitoring of stars will also be searched for anomalies.[41]
The TESS team also plans to use a 30-minute observation cadence for full-frame images, which has been noted for imposing a hardNyquist limit that can be problematic forasteroseismology of stars.[42] Asteroseismology is the science that studies the internal structure of stars by the interpretation of their frequency spectra. Different oscillation modes penetrate to different depths inside the star. TheKepler andPLATO observatories are also intended for asteroseismology.[43]
During the 27 month First Extended Mission, July 2020 to Sept 2022, data collection was slightly changed:[44]
During the 3 year Second Extended Mission,[45] Sept 2022 to Nov 2025, the full-frame image cadence will be further increased from every 10 minutes to every 200 seconds, number of 2-minute cadence targets reduced to ~8000 per sector, and number of 20-second cadence targets increased to ~2000 per sector.[46]
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In December 2014,SpaceX was awarded the contract to launch TESS in August 2017,[47] for a total contract value of US$87 million.[48] The 362 kg (798 lb) spacecraft was originally scheduled to launch on 20 March 2018, but this was pushed back by SpaceX to allow additional time to prepare the launch vehicle and meet NASA launch service requirements.[49] A static fire of the Falcon 9 rocket was completed on 11 April 2018, at approximately 18:30 UTC.[50] The launch was postponed again from 16 April 2018,[7] and TESS was eventually launched on a SpaceXFalcon 9 launch vehicle from theSLC-40 launch site atCape Canaveral Air Force Station (CCAFS) on 18 April 2018.[8][9]
The Falcon 9 launch sequence included a 149-second burn by the first stage, followed by a 6-minute second stage burn. Meanwhile, the first-stage booster performed controlled-reentry maneuvers and successfully landed on the autonomous drone shipOf Course I Still Love You. An experimental water landing was performed for the fairing,[51] as part of SpaceX's attempt to developfairing reusability.
After coasting for 35 minutes, the second stage performed a final 54-second burn that placed TESS into asupersynchronoustransfer orbit of 200 × 270,000 km (120 × 167,770 mi) at aninclination of 28.50°.[51][52] The second stage released the payload, after which the stage itself was placed in aheliocentric orbit.
In 2013,Orbital Sciences Corporation received a four-year, US$75 million contract to build TESS for NASA.[53] TESS uses an Orbital SciencesLEOStar-2satellite bus, capable of three-axis stabilization using fourhydrazine thrusters plus fourreaction wheels providing better than threearcsecond fine spacecraft pointing control. Power is provided by two single-axissolar arrays generating 400watts. AKa-band dish antenna provides a 100Mbit/s science downlink.[35][54]
Once injected into the initial orbit by the Falcon 9second stage, the spacecraft performed four additional independentburns that placed it into a lunar flyby orbit.[55] On 17 May 2018, the spacecraft underwent agravity assist by the Moon at 8,253.5 km (5,128.5 mi) above the surface,[56] and performed the final period adjustment burn on 30 May 2018.[57] It achieved an orbital period of 13.65 days in the desired 2:1 resonance with the Moon, at 90° phase offset to the Moon at apogee, which is expected to be a stable orbit for at least 20 years, thus requiring very little fuel to maintain.[8] The entire maneuvering phase was expected to take a total of two months, and put the craft in an eccentric orbit (17–75 R🜨) at a 37° inclination. The totaldelta-v budget for orbit maneuvers was 215 m/s (710 ft/s), which is 80% of the mission's total available reserves. If TESS receives an on-target or slightly above nominal orbit insertion by the Falcon 9, a theoretical mission duration in excess of 15 years would be possible from a consumables standpoint.[52]
Thefirst light image was made on 7 August 2018, and released publicly on 17 September 2018.[1][10][11][58]
TESS completed its commissioning phase at the end of July and the science phase officially started on 25 July 2018.[59]
For the first two years of operation TESS monitored both the southern (year 1) and northern (year 2)celestial hemispheres. During its nominal mission TESS tiles the sky in 26 separate segments, with a 27.4-day observing period per segment.[38] The first southern survey was completed in July 2019. The first northern survey finished in July 2020.
A 27-month First Extended mission ran until September 2022. A second extended mission will run approximately additional three years.
The sole instrument on TESS is a package of fourwide-field-of-view charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras. Each camera features four low-noise, low-power 4 megapixel CCDs created byMIT Lincoln Laboratory. The four CCDs are arranged in a 2 x 2 detector array for a total of 16megapixels per camera and 16 CCDs for the entire instrument. Each camera has a 24° × 24°field of view, a 100 mm (3.9 in) effectivepupil diameter, a lens assembly with seven optical elements, and abandpass range of 600 nm (orange) to 1000 (NIR) nm.[35][3] The TESS lenses have a combined field of view of 24° × 96° (2300 deg2, around 5% of the entire sky) and afocal ratio of f/1.4. The ensquared energy, the fraction of the total energy of the point-spread function that is within a square of the given dimensions centered on the peak, is 50% within 15 × 15 μm and 90% within 60 × 60 μm.[3] For comparison, Kepler's primary mission only covered an area of the sky measuring 105 deg2, though the K2 extension has covered many such areas for shorter times.
The four telescopes in the assembly each have a 10.5-cm diameter lens entrance aperture, with a f/1.4 focal ratio, with a total of seven lenses in theoptical train.[60]
The TESS ground system is divided between eight sites around the United States. These includeSpace Network and theJet Propulsion Laboratory'sNASA Deep Space Network for command and telemetry,Orbital ATK's Mission Operations Center,Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Payload Operations Center, theAmes Research Center's Science Processing Operations Center, TheGoddard Space Flight Center's Flight Dynamics Facility, theSmithsonian Astrophysical Observatory's TESS Science Office, and theMikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST).[61]
One of the issues facing the development of this type of instrument is having an ultra-stable light source to test on. In 2015, a group at theUniversity of Geneva made a breakthrough in the development of a stable light source. While this instrument was created to support ESA'sCHEOPS exoplanet observatory, one was also ordered by the TESS program.[62] Although both observatories plan to look at bright nearby stars using the transit method, CHEOPS is focused on collecting more data on known exoplanets, including those found by TESS and other survey missions.[63]
Current mission results as of 01 July 2025: 638 confirmed exoplanets discovered by TESS, with 7655 candidate-planets that are still awaiting confirmation or rejection as false positive by thescientific community.[64]TESS team partners include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, MIT's Lincoln Laboratory, Orbital ATK, NASA's Ames Research Center, the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, and theSpace Telescope Science Institute.
TESS started science operations on 25 July 2018.[65] The first announced finding from the mission was the observation ofcometC/2018 N1.[65]
The first exoplanet detection announcement was on 18 September 2018, announcing the discovery of a super-Earth in thePi Mensae system orbiting the star every 6 days, adding to a knownSuper-Jupiter orbiting the same star every 5.9 years.[66]
On 20 September 2018, the discovery of an ultra-short period planet was announced, slightly larger than Earth, orbiting the red dwarfLHS 3844. With an orbital period of 11 hours,LHS 3844 b is one of the planets with the shortest known period. It orbits its star at a distance of 932,000 km (579,000 mi). LHS 3844 b is also one of the closest known exoplanets to Earth, at a distance of 14.9 parsecs.[67]
TESS's third discovered exoplanet isHD 202772 Ab, a hot Jupiter orbiting the brighter component of the visual binary starHD 202772, located in the constellationCapricornus at a distance of about 480 light-years from Earth. The discovery was announced on 5 October 2018. HD 202772 Ab orbits its host star once every 3.3 days. It is an inflated hot Jupiter, and a rare example of hot Jupiters around evolved stars. It is also one of the most strongly irradiated planets known, with an equilibrium temperature of 2,100 K (1,830 °C; 3,320 °F).[68]
On 15 April 2019, TESS' first discovery of an earth-sized planet was reported.HD 21749 c is a planet described as "likely rocky", with about 89% of Earth's diameter and orbits theK-type main sequence starHD 21749 in about 8 days. The planet's surface temperature is estimated to be as high as 427 °C. Both known planets in the system,HD 21749 b andHD 21749 c, were discovered by TESS. HD 21749 c represents the 10th confirmed planet discovery by TESS.[69]
Data on exoplanet candidates continue to be made available at MAST.[70] As of 20 April 2019, the total number of candidates on the list was up to 335. Besides candidates identified as previously discovered exoplanets, this list also includes ten newly discovered exoplanets, including the five mentioned above. Forty-four of the candidates from Sector 1 in this list were selected for follow-up observations by the TESS Follow-Up Program (TFOP), which aims to aid the discovery of 50 planets with a planetary radius ofR < 4RE through repeated observations.[71] The list of candidate exoplanets continues to grow as additional results are being published on the same MAST page.
On 18 July 2019, after the first year of operation the southern portion of the survey was completed, it turned its cameras to the Northern Sky. As of this time it has discovered 21 planets and has over 850 candidate exoplanets.[72]
On 23 July 2019, the discovery of the young exoplanetDS Tucanae Ab (HD 222259 Ab) in the ~45 Myr oldTucana-Horologium youngmoving group was published in a paper. TESS first observed the planet in November 2018 and it was confirmed in March 2019. The young planet is larger than Neptune, but smaller than Saturn. The system is bright enough to follow up with radial velocity and transmission spectroscopy.[73][74] ESA'sCHEOPS mission will observe the transits of the young exoplanet DS Tuc Ab. A team of scientists got 23.4 orbits approved in the first Announcement of Opportunity (AO-1) for the CHEOPS Guest Observers (GO) Programme to characterize the planet.[75]
On 31 July 2019, the discovery of exoplanets around the M-type dwarf starGliese 357 at a distance of 31 light years from Earth was announced.[76] TESS directly observed the transit ofGJ 357 b, a hot earth with an equilibrium temperature of around 250 °C. Follow-up ground observations and analyses of historic data lead to the discovery ofGJ 357 c andGJ 357 d. While GJ 357 b and GJ 357 c are too close to the star to be habitable, GJ 357 d resides at the outer edge of the star'shabitable zone and may possess habitable conditions if it has an atmosphere. With at least 6.1ME it is classified as aSuper-Earth.[76]
As of September 2019, over 1000TESS Objects of Interest (ToI) have been listed in the public database,[77] at least 29 of which are confirmed planets, about 20 of which within the stated goal of the mission of Earth-sized (<4 Earth radii).[78]
On 26 September 2019, it was announced that TESS observed its firsttidal disruption event (TDE), calledASASSN-19bt. The TESS data revealed that ASASSN-19bt began to brighten on 21 January 2019, ~8.3 days before the discovery byASAS-SN.[79][80]
On 6 January 2020, NASA reported the discovery ofTOI-700 d, the firstEarth-sizedexoplanet in thehabitable zone discovered by the TESS. The exoplanet orbits the starTOI-700 100 light-years away in theDoradoconstellation.[29] The TOI-700 system contains two other planets: TOI-700 b, another Earth-sized planet, and TOI-700 c, a super-Earth. This system is unique in that the larger planet is found between the two smaller planets. It is currently unknown how this arrangement of planets came to be, whether these planets formed in this order or if the larger planetmigrated to its current orbit.[81] On the same day, NASA announced that astronomers used TESS data to show thatAlpha Draconis is aneclipsing binary star.[82]
NASA also announced the discovery ofTOI-1338 b, the firstcircumbinary planet discovered by TESS. TOI-1338 b is around 6.9 times larger than Earth, or between the sizes ofNeptune andSaturn. It lies in a system 1,300 light-years away in the constellationPictor. The stars in the system make an eclipsing binary, which occurs when the stellar companions circle each other in our plane of view. One is about 10% more massive than the Sun, while the other is cooler, dimmer and only one-third the Sun's mass. TOI-1338 b's transits are irregular, between every 93 and 95 days, and vary in depth and duration thanks to the orbital motion of its stars. TESS only sees the transits crossing the larger star — the transits of the smaller star are too faint to detect. Although the planet transits irregularly, its orbit is stable for at least the next 10 million years. The orbit's angle to us, however, changes enough that the planet transit will cease after November 2023 and resume eight years later.[83]
On 25 January 2021, a team led by astrochemistTansu Daylan, with the help of two high school interns as part of the Science Research Mentoring Program at Harvard & MIT, discovered and validated four extrasolar planets — composed of one super-Earth and threesub-Neptunes - hosted by the bright, nearby, Sun-like starHD 108236. The two high schoolers, 18 year old Jasmine Wright ofBedford High School inBedford, Massachusetts, and 16 year old Kartik Pinglé of Cambridge Ringe And Latin School, ofCambridge, Massachusetts, are reported to be the youngest individuals in history to discover a planet, let alone four.[84][85]
On 27 January 2021, several news agencies reported that a team using TESS had determined thatTIC 168789840, a stellar system with six stars in three binary pairs was oriented so astronomers could observe the eclipses of all the stars.[86][87][88][89][90] It is the first six star system of its kind.
In March 2021, NASA announced that TESS found 2200 exoplanet candidates.[91] By the end of 2021, TESS had discovered over 5000 candidates.[92]
On 17 May 2021, an international team of scientists, including researchers from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and theUniversity of New Mexico, reported, and confirmed by a ground based telescope, the space telescope's first discovery of a Neptune-sized exoplanet, TOI-1231 b, inside a habitable zone. The planet orbits a nearby red dwarf star, 90 light-years away in theVela constellation.[93]
The TESS Objects of Interest (TOI) are assigned by the TESS team[94] and the Community TOIs (CTOI) are assigned by independent researchers.[95] The primary mission of TESS produced 2241 TOIs.[94] Other small and large collaborations of researchers try to confirm the TOIs and CTOIs, or try to find new CTOIs.
Some of the collaborations with names that are searching exclusively for TESS planets are:
Collaborations with currently a smaller amount of discovery papers:
The TESS community is also producingsoftware and programs to help validate the planet candidates, such as TRICERATOPS,[102] DAVE,[103] Lightkurve,[104] Eleanor[105] andPlanet Patrol.[106]
TESS can estimatestellar rotation rates (which correlate with age), to find populations of similar age stars that likely formed together.[107]
TESS is featured accurately in the 2018 filmClara.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.The system, also called TIC 168789840, is the first known sextuple composed of three sets of eclipsing binaries, stellar pairs whose orbits tip into our line of sight so we observe the stars alternatively passing in front of each other.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.'Prior to the discovery of TIC 168789840, there were 17 known sextuple star systems according to the June 2020 update of the Multiple Star Catalog,' lead author Dr. Brian Powell of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and colleagues wrote in their paper.
The primary stars in all three binaries are all slightly bigger and more massive than the Sun and about as hot. The system, also called TIC 168789840, is located about 1,900 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus.
But only one of the pairs could have any planets. Two of the system's binaries orbit extremely close to one another, forming their own quadruple subsystem. Any planets there would likely be ejected or engulfed by one of the four stars. The third binary is farther out, orbiting the other two once every 2,000 years or so, making it a possible exoplanetary haven.
This article incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain.
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