Alcor and Mizar, were the first binary stars -- a pair of stars that orbit each other -- ever known. Now, astronomers have made the surprise discovery that Alcor is also actually two stars, and is ...

Alcor and Mizar, were the first binary stars -- a pair of stars that orbit each other -- ever known. Now, an astronomer at the University of Rochester and his colleagues have made the surprise ...

Studies have since shown that Mizar A and Mizar B are both binaries themselves, bringing the total star count of the Mizar system to four. Alcor is a binary system, too, accompanied by a 9th ...

Mizar is the brighter of the two stars and can be seen with the naked eye, ... Now, Alcor, which is relatively near the four stars of the Mizar system, also has a companion.

Alcor looks to be in the same position in the Big Dipper with another star, Mizar from the perspective of a viewer on Earth. In fact, both stars were used as a common test of eyesight — being ...

Thus, Mizar and Alcor are actually in a rare sextuple star system in which six stars are gravitationally held together and moving in tandem at a relatively nearby distance of 80 light years.

Detailed observations have indicated that the Mizar system may be composed of more stars and could even be a remarkable quintuple-star system. Little Alcor, meanwhile, is a true binary in its own ...