A team of astronomers has presented an interesting discovery of a star system in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. The newly discovered star system having five stars is around 250 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Astronomers in the research paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics have unveiled about the discovery of quite a strange star system present around 250 light years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The star system has five stars.

The star system is officially known as 1SWASP J093010.78+533859.5. It has five stars, as stated above, and all of them are gravitationally bounded to each other. Astronomers said that two stars orbit each other, known as a contact eclipsing binary.

As per this phenomenon, these stars are present so close to each other that they share an atmosphere and gases flow between them. Another two stars also orbit each other, but they are not present so close. They are present at a greater distance around 1.8 million miles. The fifth star is present around the second pair of stars. Astronomers said that it does not seem that it orbits that pair.

Star systems having five stars gravitationally bounded to each other are found quite rare. Though astronomers have discovered such star systems having six stars also, but it is the first one that has multiple pairs of stars orbiting each other.

To make the discovery, astronomers have used a series of telescopes in the Canary Islands and South Africa. Astronomers used them to know the amount of light coming from the stars. By calculating the star's light, astronomers came to know two stars were orbiting each other.

Then, they noticed the data having a second dip in the light that indicated of a second pair of stars orbiting each other. Finally, they calculated that a fifth star is also present.