Images reveal the formation of a multistar system

Ars Technica : Many of the stars in the Milky Way coexist in binary, trinary, or larger systems. Despite the number of such systems, not much is known about their formation. New images of a star-forming area in the Perseus region have revealed the presence of a 0.1-solar-mass protostar surrounded by three other clusters of material, referred to as condensations, that are all likely to become protostars in the next 40 000 years. The condensations are connected to each other and to the protostar by filaments of gas that stretch across distances of up to 10 000 AU. Observations of the system revealed that the protostar and the condensations were barely moving relative to each other, which indicates that the regions are all gravitationally bound to each other. Whether the arrangement will actually evolve into a four-star system is not clear, but its existence supports the theory that gravitationally entangled stars can form from the same cloud of gas, rather than forming separately and only becoming entangled when they cross paths.