A rare quadruple star system that is the first of its kind to be discovered by astronomers could help better understand so-called "failed stars" or brown dwarfs.
These celestial bodies get their unfortunate nickname from the fact that, despite forming like a standard star, they "fail" to gather enough mass to trigger the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to helium in their cores, the process that defines what a star is. Brown dwarfs are somewhat mysterious because it is difficult to track how their characteristics change as they age.
