It is less than 60 million years old, Wang said, and is almost five times brighter than the sun.
Wang said that the animation is based on eight observations of the planets since 2009.
Much can be learned from the motion of the planets, however long it may take for them to circle their sun.
Based on the Keck observations, astronomers have concluded that the four planets orbit in roughly Keplerian motion around the star — almost circular, but not entirely.
The planets are quite far from each other, which is to be expected due to their enormous size.
Because of those large separations, Wang said astronomers will be watching to see if the system is stable or if some of the planets may be ejected from the system.
Although the first three HR 8799 planets were officially discovered in 2008, researchers learned afterwards that the planets had actually already been observed.
The forth HR 8799 planet was found after further observations in 2009–2010.
That planet orbits inside the first three planets, but is still fifteen times the distance from its sun than Earth to our sun.
Originally published at Cogly.
