In a dazzling and previously undetected display of orbital dynamics, two planets beyond the solar system have been found circling a pair of stars, scientists using NASA’s Kepler space telescope said on Wednesday.

Unlike single planets orbiting single stars, the planets in the Kepler-47 system, located about 5,000 light years away in the constellation Cygnus, are flying around a “moving target,” San Diego State University astronomer Jerome Orosz said in a paper published in this week’s Science magazine.

As a consequence, when and how long it takes for the planets to orbit their parent stars varies, a telltale sign of so-called “circumbinary orbits.”

Kepler works by detecting slight dips in the amount of light coming from target stars caused by orbiting planets passing by, or transiting, relative to the observatory’s line of sight.

Last year, astronomers announced the first planet found to be orbiting a pair of stars.

The Kepler-47 family is more complex, with at least two planets circling a pair of stars that whirl around each other every 7.5 days.

One star is similar to the sun, though only 84 percent as bright. Its diminutive partner is two-thirds smaller and 175 percent dimmer.

Flying around the duo are planets Kepler-47b, which orbits in 49.5 days, and Kepler-47c, which takes 303 days to circle the parent stars.