THE CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART LEVEL OF ACCURACY IN FUNDAMENTAL STELLAR PARAMETERS FROM ECLIPSING BINARY STARS IS 2-3%. HERE WE PROPOSE TO USE ECLIPSING TRIPLE STARS TO REDUCE THE ERROR BARS BY AN ENTIRE ORDER OF MAGNITUDE I.E. TO 0.2-0.3%. THIS CAN BE DONE BECAUSE A PRESENCE OF THE THIRD COMPONENT BREAKS MOST OF THE DEGENERACY INHERENT IN BINARY SYSTEMS BETWEEN THE INCLINATION AND STELLAR SIZES. WE DETAIL THE FEASIBILITY ARGUMENTS AND FORESEE THAT THESE RESULTS WILL PROVIDE EXCEPTIONAL BENCHMARK OBJECTS FOR STRINGENT TESTS OF STELLAR EVOLUTION AND POPULATION MODELS. THE FORMATION CHANNEL OF CLOSE BINARY STARS (WITH SEPARATIONS OF SEVERAL STELLAR RADII) IS A MATTER OF DEBATE. IT IS CLEAR THAT CLOSE BINARIES CANNOT FORM IN SITU BECAUSE (1) THE PHYSICAL RADIUS OF A STAR SHRINKS BY A LARGE FACTOR BETWEEN BIRTH AND THE MAIN SEQUENCE YET MANY MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS HAVE COMPANIONS ORBITING AT A DISTANCE OF ONLY A FEW STELLAR RADII AND (2) IN CURRENT THEORIES OF PLANET FORMATION THE REGION WITHIN ~0.1 AU OF A PROTOSTAR IS TOO HOT AND RAREFIED FOR A JUPITER-MASS PLANET TO FORM YET MANY HOT JUPITERS ARE OBSERVED AT SUCH DISTANCES. CURRENT THEORIES OF DYNAMIC ORBITAL EVOLUTION ATTRIBUTE ORBITAL SHRINKING TO KOZAI CYCLES AND TIDAL FRICTION WHICH ARE LONG-LASTING PERTURBATIVE EFFECTS THAT TAKE GYRS TO SHRINK ORBITS BY 1-2 ORDERS OF MAGNITUDE. THIS IMPLIES THAT IF A BINARY STAR SYSTEM HAS A TERTIARY COMPANION IT WILL BE IN A HIERARCHICAL STRUCTURE AND ANY DISRUPTIVE ORBITAL ENCOUNTERS SHOULD BE EXCEEDINGLY RARE AFTER A CERTAIN PERIOD. THE KEPLER SATELLITE OBSERVED CONTINUOUSLY OVER 2800 ECLIPSING BINARY STARS OVER 4 YEARS OF ITS MISSION LIFETIME. THE ULTRA-HIGH PRECISION PHOTOMETRY AND ESSENTIALLY UNINTERRUPTED TIME COVERAGE ENABLES US TO TIME THE ECLIPSES TO A ~6 SECOND PRECISION. BECAUSE OF THE WELL UNDERSTOOD PHYSICS THAT GOVERNS THE ORBITAL MOTION OF TWO BODIES AROUND THE CENTER OF MASS THE EXPECTED TIMES OF ECLIPSES CAN BE PREDICTED TO A FRACTION OF A SECOND. WHEN OTHER PHYSICAL PROCESSES INTERPLAY SUCH AS APSIDAL MOTION MASS TRANSFER OR THIRD BODY INTERACTIONS THE TIMES OF ECLIPSES DEVIATE FROM PREDICTIONS: THEY EITHER COME EARLY OR LATE. THESE DEVIATIONS ARE CALLED ECLIPSE TIMING VARIATIONS (ETVS) AND CAN RANGE FROM A FEW SECONDS TO A FEW HOURS. OUR TEAM MEASURED ETVS FOR THE ENTIRE KEPLER DATA-SET OF ECLIPSING BINARIES AND FOUND 516 THAT DEMONSTRATE SIGNIFICANT DEVIATIONS. OF THOSE 16 SHOW STRONG INTERACTIONS BETWEEN THE BINARY SYSTEM AND THE TERTIARY COMPONENT THAT SIGNIFICANTLY AFFECTS THE BINARY ORBIT WITHIN A SINGLE ENCOUNTER. THIS OBSERVED RATE OF DYNAMICAL PERTURBATION EVENTS IS UNEXPECTEDLY HIGH AND AT ODDS WITH CURRENT THEORIES. WE PROPOSE TO STUDY THESE OBJECTS IN GREAT DETAIL: (1) TO APPLY A DEVELOPED PHOTODYNAMICAL CODE TO MODEL MULTIPLE BODY INTERACTIONS; (2) TO FULLY SOLVE ORBITAL DYNAMICS OF THESE INTERACTING BODIES USING ALL AVAILABLE KEPLER DATA DERIVING MASSES OF ALL OBJECTS TO BETTER THAN 1%; (3) TO MEASURE THE OCCURRENCE RATE OF STRONG ORBITAL INTERACTIONS IN MULTIPLE SYSTEMS AND COMPARE IT TO THE PREDICTED RATES; (4) TO HYPOTHESIZE AND SIMULATE ADDITIONAL EVOLUTION CHANNELS THAT COULD POTENTIALLY LEAD TO SUCH A HIGH OCCURRENCE RATE OF DISRUPTIVE EVENTS; AND (5) TO INTEGRATE THESE SYSTEMS OVER TIME AND TEST WHETHER THIS DYNAMIC EVOLUTION CAN CAUSE EFFICIENT ORBITAL TIGHTENING AND THE CREATION OF SHORT PERIOD BINARIES. THE TEAM CONSISTS OF A PI WHO HAS EXPERIENCE WITH KEPLER SATELLITE'S IDIOSYNCRASIES TWO POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS ONE GRADUATE STUDENT AND SIX UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS THAT WILL INVEST THEIR SUMMER MONTHS TO LEARN ABOUT MULTIPLE BODY INTERACTIONS. THE PROPOSED STUDY HAS FAR-REACHING RESEARCH GOALS IN STELLAR AND PLANETARY SCIENCE ASTROPHYSICS A STRONG EDUCATIONAL/TRAINING COMPONENT AND IS ALIGNED WITH NASA'S OBJECTIVES AS OUTLINED IN THE NRA CALL. KEPLER IS THE ONLY INSTRUMENT THAT CAN PROVIDE THE ACCURACY AND TEMPORAL COVERAGE REQUIRED FOR THE EXECUTION OF THIS PROJECT.