In the distant past, this quaternion system boasted four super-giant stars orbiting one another in barycentric pairs. However, at some point in the last 12 billion years, the stars have collapsed: three became neutron stars, while the fourth gathered additional mass, up to 5.55 Solar Masses, and collapsed into a black hole.

77 kls away from the black hole a binary pair of neutron stars are locked in a close and fast orbit. Today they revolve around one another at a distance of 4.7 ls, in 6.6 hours.

Orbiting the pair are eight high metal content worlds, seven of which are landable. Three of these have retained their thin carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide atmospheres, though any remnants of life have long since been stripped away. From the surface of the nearest (tidally locked) planet (body CD 1), which is only 320 ls away from the twin neutron stars it co-orbits, the pair is clearly visible to explorers standing on the planet's surface.

Similarly, looking away from the binary pair, explorers can see the distortion created by the black hole, lit by its partner neutron star, against the backdrop of the Milky Way.

The system is named after 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.