Four massive planets spotted orbiting distant star

A three second video that took seven years to make has revealed four distant planets each bigger than Jupiter orbiting a young star.

Despite taking almost a decade for the W.M. Keck observatory in Hawaii to compile the images, the video doesn't show full orbits due to the extensive time it takes each one to revolve around the sun.

The closest planet to the star – designated HR 8799 -will take 40-years to complete a revolution with the furthest expected to take more than 400 years.

University of California astronomy graduate student Jason Wang believes the four planets resonate with each other meaning each planet's orbital period is relative to the next.

Wang said there is a chance in the future one or more of the planets many be ejected from their celestial orbit due to their massive size in comparison to the young sun.

HR 8799 is 129 light years away in the Pegasus constellation.