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Amateur Planet Hunters Find First Planet In a Four-Star System

The Bad Astronomer writes "For the first time, a planet has been found in a stellar system composed of four stars. The planet, called PH-1, orbits a binary star made of two sun-like stars in a tight orbit. That binary is itself orbited by another binary pair much farther out. Even more amazing, this planet was found by two "citizen scientists", amateurs who participated in Planet Hunters, a project which puts Kepler Observatory data online for lay people to analyze. At least two confirmed planets have been found by this project, but this is the first — ever — in a quaternary system."

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  1. Hey everybody! It's Phil Plait! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Good old Phillip is here again, astroturfing his blog. Total garbage. He doesn't care about the Slashdot community. For him it's all about the dollars. He's trying to drum up page hits by putting his third rate blog into the mix instead of just linking directly to the real goods. It stinks to high heaven and if it were anyone else people would be shouting about his shilling.