More than 12 billion years old, this quaternion system, in the distant past, boasted four massive super-giant stars orbiting one another in two barycentric pairings along with some now unknowable number of planets. At some point in the distant past, the stars collapsed three becoming neutron stars while the remnant of the fourth, their heavier sibling, gathered additional mass through accretion and imploded, collapsing into a black hole currently boasting 5.55 (Body A).

77Kls from the black hole orbit a binary pair (Bodies C/D) of neutron stars locked in a super-fast, but ultimately doomed, decaying barycentric orbit. Today they revolve around one another at a distance of 4.7LS, in 6.6 hours.

Orbiting Bodies C/D are eight high metal content worlds with metallic cores. Seven are landable and three retain their CO2/SO2 atmospheres, though any remnant of life have long since been stripped away. From the surface of the nearest (tidally locked) planet (Body CD 1), only 320ls away, its parent neutrons are clearly visible to explorers standing on the planet’s surface.

Similarly, looking away from the binary neutrons, explorers can see the distortion field created by the primary black hole (Body A) lit by its partner neutron star (Body B) and against the backdrop of the Milky Way.

More than 12 billion years old, this quaternion system, in the distant past, boasted four massive super-giant stars orbiting one another in two barycentric pairings along with some now unknowable number of planets. At some point in the distant past, the stars collapsed three becoming neutron stars while the remnant of the fourth, their heavier sibling, gathered additional mass through accretion and imploded, collapsing into a black hole currently boasting 5.55 (Body A).

77Kls from the black hole orbit a binary pair (Bodies C/D) of neutron stars locked in a super-fast, but ultimately doomed, decaying barycentric orbit. Today they revolve around one another at a distance of 4.7LS, in 6.6 hours.

Orbiting Bodies C/D are eight high metal content worlds with metallic cores. Seven are landable and three retain their CO2/SO2 atmospheres, though any remnant of life have long since been stripped away. From the surface of the nearest (tidally locked) planet (Body CD 1), only 320ls away, its parent neutrons are clearly visible to explorers standing on the planet’s surface.

Similarly, looking away from the binary neutrons, explorers can see the distortion field created by the primary black hole (Body A) lit by its partner neutron star (Body B) and against the backdrop of the Milky Way.

The system is named for Cerberus, the three-headed dog known as the Hound of Hades, who, according to Greek mythology, guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving.