Planet Like 'Star Wars' Tatooine Discovered Orbiting 2 Suns.

[Le Socialiste]

Planet Like 'Star Wars' Tatooine Discovered Orbiting 2 Suns

By Charles Q. Choi , SPACE.com Contributor Space.com | SPACE.com – 14 hrs ago



Click photo to see more images. (Reuters/NASA)

This story was updated at 2:59 p.m. ET.



It's a real-life Tatooine. A spectacle made popular by the "Star Wars" saga — a planet with two suns — has now been confirmed in space for the first time, astronomers revealed.
Scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope captured details of a giant planet in orbit around the pair of binary stars that make up the Kepler-16 system, which is about 200 light-years away.
"This discovery is stunning," said study co-author Alan Boss at the Carnegie Institute in Washington. "Once again, what used to be science fiction has turned into reality." [See an image and video of Tatooine planet Kepler 16b]

When Tatooine was depicted on film, many scientists doubted that such planets could really exist. Now there's proof.
"It's possible that there's a real Tatooine out there," said John Knoll, visual effects supervisor at the special-effects firm Industrial Light and Magic, which was behind the "Star Wars" films. "Kepler 16b is unambiguous and dramatic proof that planets really do form around binaries."
The new discovery is expanding the bounds of what scientists, as well as filmakers, can conceive, he said.
"Again and again we see that the science is stranger and cooler than fiction," Knoll said during a NASA press conference today. "The very existence of these discoveries gives us cause to dream bigger, to question our assumptions."
The planet, dubbed Kepler-16(AB)-b, passes in front of both stars in view of the satellite, regularly dimming their light. Each star also eclipses its companion as they orbit each other. Altogether, these motions allow scientists to precisely calculate the masses, radii and trajectories of all three bodies.
The newfound planet keeps a distance from its stars nearly three-quarters that of the distance between the Earth and the sun. It is somewhat like Saturn in size, although nearly 50 percent denser, suggesting it is richer in heavy elements. [10 Real Alien Worlds That Could Be In 'Star Wars']
"Kepler-16(AB)-b is not habitable as we know it," said study lead author Laurance Doyle , an astrophysicist at the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute in Mountain View, Calif.
This alien world travels on a nearly circular 229-day orbit around its two parent stars, Kepler-16A and Kepler-16B, which are about 69 and 20 percent as massive as the sun, respectively. The stars keep close to each other — only a fifth of the distance between Earth and the sun on average, which is closer than Mercury gets to the sun — completing an orbit around each other every 41 days, researchers added. [Infographic: New Planet is Like "Star Wars'" Tatooine]
Worlds that orbit around two stars, known as circumbinary planets, had been hinted at before. Stars in pairs both orbit around a point in space called barycenter, and researchers at times saw these orbits were slightly off, suggesting the presence of a planet tugging at both stars. However, Kepler-16(AB)-b is the first planet that scientists have detected directly passing in front of, or transiting, its stars, temporarily dimming their light.
Since the movements of this world and its two stars are all virtually confined to the same plane, the researchers suggest they all formed from the same disk of dust and gas. Planets that were captured from other star systems might be expected to orbit at a range of angles.
"Now that we know how to detect circumbinary planets, I think we are going to find a lot more rapidly," Doyle told SPACE.com.
The scientists detailed their findings in the Sept. 16 issue of the journal Science.

http://news.yahoo.com/planet-star-wa...181404397.html

Kinda cool.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

I hate it when rubbish cultural phenomenons interfere with and pollutes science. Like when they named that protein Sonic hedgehog...

[Smyg]

Annoying reference, interesting discovery.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

I knew this infographic would become relevant someday:



This is based on observations of protoplanetary disks, which are easier to observe than fully-formed planets.

[Die Rote Fahne]

Very interesting stuff. Would it affect life on the planet in any way? If, hypothetically, it was habitable?

[A Revolutionary Tool]

Funny how the first thing I thought of when I heard this is "Tatooine".

[Princess Luna]

I hate it when rubbish cultural phenomenons interfere with and pollutes science. Like when they named that protein Sonic hedgehog...

I don't see how it pollutes or interferes science to name stuff after pop culture, it just shows scientists have a sense of humor. I am sure they will have the exact same approach to studying the planet, rather its name is Tattooine or A5GS23.

[bcbm]

I hate it when rubbish cultural phenomenons interfere with and pollutes science.

did you just call star wars rubbish? gtfo

[Dzerzhinsky's Ghost]

I don't see how it pollutes or interferes science to name stuff after pop culture, it just shows scientists have a sense of humor. I am sure they will have the exact same approach to studying the planet, rather its name is Tattooine or A5GS23.

did you just call star wars rubbish? gtfo

^This (especially the last quote). I think making a cultural reference not only illustrates that the scientists involved have a sense of humor but also it's an easy way to quickly describe the planet and explain what it's generally like as we know it currently to the populus and to the reader. Neat post.

[Manic Impressive]

I hate it when rubbish cultural phenomenons interfere with and pollutes science. Like when they named that protein Sonic hedgehog...

yeah I know just what you mean Mars, Jupiter, Neptune........bloody cultural references interfering with mah science

[Red Future]

Not happy until the planet contains giant sandcrawlers and hooded Jawas in the deserts

[kitsune]

I don't see how it pollutes or interferes science to name stuff after pop culture, it just shows scientists have a sense of humor. I am sure they will have the exact same approach to studying the planet, rather its name is Tattooine or A5GS23.

It's also a way to relate the information to something familiar to the general public, to get them interested in and excited about the science. Plus, scientists were often science fiction fans long before they became scientists, so it's a natural connection.

[Le Socialiste]

Not happy until the planet contains giant sandcrawlers and hooded Jawas in the deserts

Okay, I rarely say this but: I lol'd.

Well done.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

yeah I know just what you mean Mars, Jupiter, Neptune........bloody cultural references interfering with mah science

Except Star Wars sucks. Not to mention this idea was not novel or unique to Star Wars - I have pop-science books from the 1960's that depict and discuss the possibility that there are planets in orbit around twin-binary stars.

[Le Socialiste]

Except Star Wars sucks.

Bite your tongue!

I'm only kidding - the prequels sucked (for the most part).

[Manic Impressive]

Whether Star Wars sucks or not is not really the issue, the point is cultural references are frequent within science and naming a planet after a Greek/Roman god is no less stupid than taking a name from any other fantasy, modern or ancient.

[maskerade]

Except Star Wars sucks. Not to mention this idea was not novel or unique to Star Wars - I have pop-science books from the 1960's that depict and discuss the possibility that there are planets in orbit around twin-binary stars.

[ÑóẊîöʼn]

Very interesting stuff. Would it affect life on the planet in any way? If, hypothetically, it was habitable?

Apart from the day being slightly longer, not really. Unless it was an exotic pair like a red giant and a pulsar or neutron star - then there could be considerable radiation flux which might have an effect if it isn't strong enough to totally preclude organic replicating molecules. If the red giant is replaced by a red dwarf then there's possibility of life evolving to take advantage of any radiation flux instead of just weathering it.

There are many interesting possibilities, for one you could have a binary pair with a habitable planet orbiting one but not the other - given a suitable pairing and orbital distance, one could end up with a habitable planet that never experiences true night for about half a year, as during that part of its orbit it would be between the pair of stars and recieving light on both sides.

It's also possible, but extremely unlikely, that we could find figure-of-eight orbits, which could form the basis for very strange seasonal variations.

[the last donut of the night]

I hate it when rubbish cultural phenomenons interfere with and pollutes science. Like when they named that protein Sonic hedgehog...

yo this h8r

[Aurora]

"Now that we know how to detect circumbinary planets, I think we are going to find a lot more rapidly," Doyle told SPACE.com.

That's good news it seems that we're able to find planets much much easier than just a few years ago.

It's not really surprising that something in star wars was found to be real, after all the death star orbits Saturn