In star systems with multiple stars, can you have different ‘solar systems’ for each star or each pair of stars?

Question

I’ve been watching some youtube videos on multiple star systems, and I’m very confused as to whether each of the stars can have their planets.

If two of the stars are in a binary configeration for example, I think they would have their own ‘planets’ together, however I don’t know if a third star separate to the first two would have it’s own stable system.

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In: 2

Answer 1

Yes.

It would not look all that different from our own solar system. The Sun and Jupiter are revolving around a point in between one another; Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars are orbiting the Sun; Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto are orbiting Jupiter; Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are orbiting the whole system.

In our case the Sun is *way* larger than Jupiter, such that their combined center of mass is almost within the Sun’s radius. But the underlying mechanics would be approximately the same even if they were more closely matched.