美国国家航空航天局发现了一个六星系统

美国国家航空航天局发现了一个六星系统，在这个系统中，恒星之间不断地互相遮挡

Stars can get in pretty peculiar configurations, which are often difficult to spot and even more difficult to model. But system TIC 168789840 truly is almost too extraordinary to be described. It is the first six-star system discovered where each pair of stars are eclipsing binaries.

恒星可以形成非常奇特的形状，通常很难发现，甚至更难建立模型。但TIC 168789840系统实在是太不寻常了，难以描述。这是第一个发现每一对恒星都是日食双星的六恒星系统。

Each star in the three pairings – A, B, and C – orbit each other in a matter of days. So, from the point of view of our planet, some of the stars in the system get covered partially by their companion. If this was not already exciting, the A and C systems orbit each other every four years. And those two systems orbit the B system every 2,000 years. A truly incredible stellar dance.

这三对恒星——A、B和C——在数天内围绕彼此运行。所以，从我们行星的角度来看，这个系统中的一些恒星被它们的伴星部分覆盖。如果这还不令人兴奋的话，A和C系统每四年绕对方轨道运行一次。这两个系统每2000年绕B系统转一圈。是一个真正令人难以置信的恒星舞蹈。

The study is accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal. The team describes how this system is similar to Castor, the second brightest object in the Gemini constellation. Castor is also a six-star system, but only one pair in the Castor system eclipses from our point of view.

这项研究被接受发表在《天文学杂志》上。该团队描述了这个系统与双子星座中第二亮的星座——蓖麻星是如何相似的。Castor也是一个六星系统，但从我们的观点来看，在Castor系统中只有一对月食。

Dr Alfredo Carpineti

Another difference is just how similar the pairs in TIC 168789840 (also known by the equally catchy TYC 7037-89-1) are. They could be truly seen as triplets. And researchers believe that this is a crucial clue for how the system might have formed and evolved.

另一个区别是TIC 168789840(也被同样引人注目的TYC 7037-89-1所知)中的对有多相似。他们可以被视为三胞胎。研究人员认为，这是研究该系统如何形成和进化的关键线索。

“In this work, we have presented the discovery of the first known sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system TIC 168789840,” the international team wrote in the paper, which is available on the ArXiv.

“在这项工作中，我们展示了第一个已知的六次日食六星系TIC 168789840的发现，”国际团队在论文中写道，该论文可以在ArXiv上找到。

“TIC 168789840 is a fascinating system that naturally merits additional observation and analysis. Though quite similar to the famous Castor system, the “triplet” nature of TIC 168789840 combined with the presence of three primary and three secondary eclipses enable further investigations into its stellar formation and evolution.”

TIC 168789840是一个迷人的系统，自然值得额外的观察和分析。虽然与著名的星轮星系非常相似，但TIC 168789840的“三重”性质，加上三次主食和三次次食的存在，使我们能够进一步研究其恒星的形成和演化。

This schematic shows the configuration of the sextuple star system TIC 168789840. Image Credit: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

The team put forward the possibility that star A and C form as a binary with a thick disk of material around them. They eventually encountered star B, which is captured on a wider orbit. All this excitement caused the collapse of gas in the disk into smaller companions, orbiting on roughly the same plane. It is a compelling hypothesis, but without more data, it remains highly speculative.

该研究小组提出了恒星A和C以双星形式存在的可能性，它们周围有一层厚厚的物质圆盘。他们最终遇到了B星，它被捕获在一个更宽的轨道上。所有这些刺激导致了圆盘内气体的坍缩，变成更小的伴星，在大致相同的平面上绕轨道运行。这是一个令人信服的假设，但没有更多的数据，它仍然是高度推测的。

The discovery of this system is thanks to NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS is keeping an eye on millions of stars and studying about 200,000 in detail. The team was able to use a machine-learning algorithm to find eclipsing binaries among 80 million stars. Among these, at least 100 were identified to be in systems with more than three stars.

这个系统的发现要感谢美国宇航局的凌日系外行星勘测卫星(TESS)。TESS正密切关注着数百万颗恒星，并详细研究了大约20万颗恒星。该团队能够使用机器学习算法在8000万颗恒星中找到日食双星。在这些星系中，至少有100个被确认属于拥有3颗以上恒星的星系。

TIC 168789840 is located 1,900 light-years away in the constellation Eridanus, a southern sky constellation named after the Latin name of Italy’s longest river.

TIC 168789840位于1900光年之外的波江星座，这是一个南方的天空星座，以意大利最长河流的拉丁名字命名。