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These binary stars likely formed close together, and have been orbiting one another since their birth, the researchers said.
MSN: 'Impossible' stars found in our galaxy - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News
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These might include, for example, binary stars, where one star orbits another, blocking some of the light as the stars transit each other.
BBC: Kepler telescope: Earth-sized planets 'number 17bn'
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Astronomers using the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope (UKIRT) in Hawaii discovered the four star pairs, each of which is a binary system in which two stars circle each other in less than four hours.
MSN: 'Impossible' stars found in our galaxy - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News
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"When you have stars in a binary or triple system, and one of them burns all its hydrogen and becomes a red giant, if it's close enough it can start to dump some of its material onto that other star, " he explained to BBC News.
BBC: Kepler star trio find is mystery to astroseismologists
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But many stars are partnered in binary star systems.
ECONOMIST: The dizziest, giddiest stars
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Most stars in the galaxy are, in fact, in binary systems, and astronomers have been wondering whether the gravity of a second star nearby might disrupt a dust disc too much for planets to coalesce.
ECONOMIST: Dusty genesis
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Our sun does not orbit another star, but roughly half of the stars in our Milky Way galaxy do, as part of a binary system.
MSN: 'Impossible' stars found in our galaxy - Technology & science - Space - Space.com | NBC News
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Secondly, the detection of multiple planets demolishes once and for all the lingering doubts of some astronomers that the single planets found around other stars are not planets at all, but small, faint components in otherwise conventional binary star systems.
ECONOMIST: Planet hunting
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Even stars that are born far away from a giant are still likely to be part of a binary or triple star system.
ECONOMIST: Planetary formation