As our technological capabilities increase, we keep making discoveries in space that never cease to amaze us.

The latest is a planet that has four suns – something unheard of in astronomical circles, until now.

The discovery was made by volunteers using the Planethunters.org website along with a team from UK and US institutes; follow-up observations were made with the Keck Observatory.

The planet, located just under 5,000 light years away, has been named PH1 after the Planet Hunters site.

It is thought to be a “gas giant” slightly larger than Neptune – more than six times the radius of the Earth. Experts said that with all four stars pulling on it creates a very complicated environment. Yet there it sits in an apparently stable orbit.

Binary stars – systems with pairs of stars – are not uncommon. But only a handful of known exoplanets (planets that circle other stars) have been found to orbit such binaries. And none of these binary systems are known to have another pair of stars circling them.

Just 100 years ago, we had to watch the stars from earth. We wondered about their mysteries and patterns, and astronomers did what they could from here to try and plot the mass of twinkling lights. Astronomers have looked up into the night skies for millennia to try and make sense of what was out there, and seafarers gained knowledge of the patterns and how to navigate, using them as their night-time guides.

But as the space age came around, it was decided that telescopes would be sent into space to space – the most well-known examples of which are the Hubble and the Kepler telescope. It was in fact the Kepler scope which was used to follow up the discovery of PH1.

The world is a changing place, and so is space. Even the landing of the Mars rover Curiosity has shown us that we didn’t know all that much about our red neighbour. Humanity is what it is. We have harvested and put our own planet on the path to ruin. Yet our insatiable curiosity is what makes us tick. It is what makes us advance and progress. Maybe one day, before it is too late, that same curiosity will lead us to a new planet that we will call home. Maybe one day, we might have the means to travel beyond our solar system. Maybe one day, we will have the means to travel beyond our galaxy. The possibilities are endless. Isn’t it strange to think that in the past, people were jailed and excommunicated for propagating scientific discoveries. Now, we just wait to be surprised by science, each and every day.