Edge-on Coplanar Triple-Star TIC 295741342 Illuminates How Such Triples Form

NASA’s TESS has identified TIC 295741342, a rare, edge-on triple-star system about 3,080 light-years away, where a sun-like binary with a 4.75-day orbit is eclipsed by a distant third star on a 412.8-day path. All three stars share nearly the same orbital plane, producing a distinctive “head-and-shoulders” light curve and offering clues to formation via disk fragmentation. While close planetary orbits are unlikely in such a setup, very wide orbits could exist. The outer star is aging into a red giant, potentially leading to future mass transfer and nova-like events. These findings come from TESS photometry combined with radial velocity measurements and are discussed in a preprint on arXiv.