6 for the price of 1 ...

A NASA illustration shows the complex sextuple orbits of the nearby star system Castor. 

The newly-discovered system has a similar arrangement of stars. (Image credit: 

NASA/JPL-Caltech; edited by Nicholas Beeson)

Imagine if earth was centered inside this stellar carousel known as the Castor 6 star system. Tatoone, of Starwars fame, equipped with just two, would be a nothing while the complex light variances of the Castor system would be something else altogether with one innocent question ... would there ever be darkness? 

Ever ridden a teacup ride at a state fair? If so, you might have a small taste of life in a whirling, twirling sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system.

"Sextuply-eclipsing sextuple star system" is astronomer-speak for a system with six stars all orbiting each other and all regularly eclipsing one another from the perspective of Earth — and astronomers have just found one named TIC 168789840.

With the Greek Myths being a biggie with yours truly, why is said star system named Castor? Well ... the Castor system, better known as the constellation Gemini, is associated with the twins Castor and Pollux in Greek mythology.

Which tells a most interesting tale. :)

Dioscuri, also called (in French) Castor and Polydeuces and (in Latin) Castor and Pollux, (Dioscuri from Greek Dioskouroi, “Sons of Zeus”), in Greek and Roman mythology, twin deities who succoured shipwrecked sailors and received sacrifices for favourable winds. They were the children of Leda and either Zeus, the king of the gods, or Tyndareus, Leda’s mortal husband and the king of Lacedaemon. According to the usual version, Castor was the son of Tyndareus and thus was mortal, while Pollux was the son of Zeus (who famously had approached Leda in the form of a swan)

Leda and the Swan, 16th-century copy after the lost painting by Michelangelo