Binary^2

[BradHann]

I've seen quaternary (is that the right word?) planets before, but they've all been a binary, then a third planet orbiting, then a fourth planet orbiting all that. I've never seen two binaries forming a mega-binary before. Is this common?

 

[marx]

I don't have the numbers on them, but as far as I know, they are rare. The most discovered so far were five planets with shared barycenters.

Take a look at the orrery though, because based on the system map, I think you're a bit mistaken. It looks like bodies 2 and 3 orbit each other - a binary pair of gas giants, and 4 and 5 also orbit each other - a binary pair of a gas giant and a planet - and these two binary pairs also orbit each other. A binary of two binaries, if you will. Yours is quite nicely symmetrical.

You can compare with other examples posted in this thread.

Oh, and congrats on your find!

 

[GroG79]

I have seen this before. Depending on the distance between the two binary systems you might have found a great photo opportunity.

 

[Orvidius]

I really wish the journals would capture the barycenters too. It would be so much easier to get data on these. But of course, if they added that feature tomorrow, all our existing data would still be missing it.

 

[BradHann]

Take a look at the orrery though, because based on the system map, I think you're a bit mistaken. It looks like bodies 2 and 3 orbit each other - a binary pair of gas giants, and 4 and 5 also orbit each other - a binary pair of a gas giant and a planet - and these two binary pairs also orbit each other. A binary of two binaries, if you will. Yours is quite nicely symmetrical.

Isn't that what I said? It's what I meant to say.

 

[Caramel Clown]

Can you show their orbits in orrery? Sometimes this vanilla map layout doesn't quite give a good picture on what orbital relations between bodies are.

 

[marx]

Isn't that what I said? It's what I meant to say.

Hm, looks like I misread what you wrote. My bad.

 

[BradHann]

Can you show their orbits in orrery? Sometimes this vanilla map layout doesn't quite give a good picture on what orbital relations between bodies are.