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TATOOINE — A group of scientists on the outer rim planet of Tatooine have come to the realization that the planet's two suns might have something to do with its global warming issue. "Our planet has experienced many years of harsh climate issues and unforgiving heat. After putting our heads together and really thinking about it, we surmised that maybe the two giant burning balls of gas we orbit around may be the issue," stated local scientist Tumar Sleezelag."I mean it kinda makes sense if you think about it. The intense heat levels have already caused several issues amongst the...

Kepler-16b Artist’s impression of Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars – what’s called a circumbinary planet. The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA’s Kepler mission. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle ********************************************************************************* Study proves ground-based telescopes can search for planets with two suns. Astronomers have used a new technique to confirm a real-life Tatooine, the fictional planet with two suns that was home to Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars.” The planet, Kepler-16b, is about 245 light years from Earth, is a gas giant, and is roughly the size of Saturn. Scientists already knew...

The gravitational pull of large gas giant planets can affect the orbits of smaller planets; that scenario is thought to have occurred in our own solar system. In some cases, the smaller planet may be flung into a much wider orbit, perhaps even 100 times wider than Pluto's. In the case of single stars, that's normally how it ends. In a binary star system, however, the two stars may play a game of "cosmic pinball" with the poor planet first. Moeckel and Dimitri conducted simulations of binary star systems, with two sun-like stars orbiting each other at distances between 250...

The alien planet with two suns, as in the "Star Wars" films, will be visible Scientists have spotted a real-life Tatooine — a world with two suns, like Luke Skywalker's home planet in the "Star Wars" films — and you should be able to see this alien star system, too, using a good pair of binoculars. Astronomers announced the discovery of the alien planet, called Kepler-16b, Thursday. The Saturn-mass planet orbits a pair of stars known as Kepler-16A and Kepler-16B. Someone on Kepler-16b would see two suns hanging near each other in the sky, just as Luke did on Tatooine.

Right now, we know of about 4,000 confirmed exoplanets, mostly thanks to the Kepler mission. TESS, the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, will likely raise that 4000 by a lot. But what about the stars that all of these planets orbit? A new study from the Astrophysical Institute and University Observatory of the University of Jena identified over 200 exoplanets that exist in multiple star systems. The study is part of the effort to understand how host stars shape the formation and evolution of planets.

The Tunisian desert region used as a location for the original "Star Wars" and as a tourist destination for fans of the film franchise is now reportedly crawling with a threat more insidious than marauding Sand People — ISIS terrorists. Particularly hard hit has been Tataouine, the Tunisian town that inspired George Lucas to name Luke Skywalker's home planet, Tatooine, and now a pit stop for wannabe jihadists headed to join ISIS in nearby Libya, CNN reported. Three men were arrested nearby the town that's just 60 miles from the Libyan border and arms caches were confiscated nearby, one of...

The planet, dubbed GJ 667Cc, orbits a red dwarf star 22 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Scorpio. A binary pair of orange dwarf stars are part of the same system. (Related: "'Tatooine' Planet With Two Suns Could Host Habitable Moon?") The new planet has a mass 4.5 times that of Earth and orbits its host star every 28 days. The red dwarf is relatively dim, so the planet receives slightly less light from its star than Earth does from the sun. But most of the star's light is infrared, so the planet should absorb more of its incoming energy...

Three studies released Wednesday, in the journal Nature and at the American Astronomical Society's conference in Austin, Texas, demonstrate an extrasolar real estate boom. San Diego State University astronomers, along with a team of scientists, have discovered two more planetary systems with two suns. Before, it was believed planets could only orbit a single sun, because a double sun, also known as a double star, would make the system too chaotic... The two new planets, Kepler-34 b and Kepler-35 b, are gaseous Saturn-size planets. Kepler-34 b orbits its two sun-like stars every 289 days, and the stars themselves orbit and...

>Ames Research Center, Circumbinary Planet, Matt Bigler, Mountain View, NASA, NASA Ames, Star Wars, Tatooine, Two Suns MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kepler spacecraft has found a planet that orbits two stars just as Luke Skywalker’s home world does in the Star Wars movies, NASA announced Thursday.An orange sun and a red sun that actually orbit each other define daytime on Kepler 16b, the 21st planet outside our own solar system discovered by  planet hunter.KCBS’ Matt Bigler Reports: NASA Discovery Sure To Excite Star Wars Fans The resemblance between the newest exo-planet and the...

Explanation: If you stay up long enough, you can watch both suns set. Such might be a common adage from beings floating in the atmosphere of Kepler 16b, a planet recently discovered by the space-based Kepler satellite. The above animated video shows how the planetary system might look to a visiting spaceship. Although multiple star systems are quite common, this is the first known to have a planet. Because our Earth is in the orbital plane of both stars and the planet, each body is seen to eclipse the others at different times, producing noticeable drop offs in the amount...

By developing a technique called precision astrometry, the researchers have discovered a Jupiter-mass exoplanet orbiting the primary star of the binary system of HR 7162 (or HD 176051), some 49 light-years from Earth. They've called it "Inrakluk." Astrometry is the study of the precise measurements of the positions and movement of stars. This is the first time the technique has been used to decipher the presence of an exoplanet in the complex dynamics of a binary system. The periodic variation in location of HR 7162 led to the Jupiter-like exoplanet's discovery. But the very existence of Inrakluk has called into...

Two extremely dense stars in an intimate dance are spinning around each other in just 5.4 minutes -- making them the fastest known stellar partners in the galaxy, astronomers have confirmed. To have such a speedy orbit, the stars must be moving at about 310 miles (500 kilometers) a second, the team calculates. The whirling duo, known as HM Cancri, also has the tightest orbit of any known "binary" star system. Both stars are white dwarfs... The stellar corpses are separated by no more than three times the width of Earth. In such tight quarters, hot gases flow between the...

Of the 353 known planets outside the solar system, 227 were found by watching the movement of a star for signs of an orbiting planet's gravitational tug. This technique is known to sometimes miss sibling planets. Now a team at the University of Arizona, US has worked out that around half of those 227 may have a secret sibling... the effects of two planets with fairly circular orbits can combine to have the same effect on a star as one planet with a very eccentric orbit, says Timothy Rodigas, a graduate student at the University of Arizona. More than two...

Two University of Hawaii at Manoa astronomers have found a binary star-disk system in which each star is surrounded by the kind of dust disk that is frequently the precursor of a planetary system. Doctoral student Rita Mann and Dr. Jonathan Williams used the Submillimeter Array on Mauna Kea, Hawaii to make the observations. A binary star system consists of two stars bound together by gravity that orbit a common center of gravity. Most stars form as binaries, and if both stars are hospitable to planet formation, it increases the likelihood that scientists will discover Earth-like planets.

Hurtling through space 31 years after its launch, the Voyager 2 spacecraft has sent back the most detailed view yet of the shock wave that marks the thinning of the solar wind, the charged particles streaming from the sun. Researchers say the crossing confirms that the heliosphere—the region swept out by the solar wind—is actually lopsided, perhaps due to a tilted magnetic field in local interstellar space. The shock wave, or heliospheric termination shock, occurs when the supersonic wind thins to the point that it can no longer rebuff the denser haze of charged particles flowing through interstellar space. Instead,...

Posted by Stephen Shankland This diagram shows plasma from interstellar space colliding with the heliosphere that surrounds the sun.(Credit: NASA) SAN FRANCISCO--Thirty years after launch but earlier than expected, Voyager 2 has left the cozy realm of our solar system, where the stream of particles from the sun dominates space. You might think that space billions of miles from the sun is a placid, empty domain. In fact, Voyager 2 has been heading outward in the same direction as the solar wind, charged particles streaming from the sun, but things started to get a lot more complicated on August 30,...

Artie Hatzes (Thueringer Landessternwarte Tautenburg), Bill Cochran (UT-Austin McDonald Observatory), and colleagues found that the planet orbits the larger star of the binary system Gamma Cephei, about 45 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. The primary star is 1.59 times as massive as the Sun. The planet is 1.76 times as massive as Jupiter. It orbits the star at about 2 Astronomical Units (A.U.), a little further than Mars' distance from the Sun. (An A.U. is the distance from Earth to the Sun.) The second, relatively small star is only 25 to 30 A.U. from the primary star — about...

Newly discovered planet has 3 suns Scientists puzzled at how such a planet could form A newly discovered planet has bountiful sunshine, with not one, not two, but three suns glowing in its sky. It is the first extrasolar planet found in a system with three stars. How a planet was born amidst these competing gravitational forces will be a challenge for planet formation theories. "The environment in which this planet exists is quite spectacular," said Maciej Konacki from the California Institute of Technology. "With three suns, the sky view must be out of this world -- literally and figuratively."...

A newly discovered planet has bountiful sunshine, with not one, not two, but three suns glowing in its sky. It is the first extrasolar planet found in a system with three stars. How a planet was born amidst these competing gravitational forces will be a challenge for planet formation theories. "The environment in which this planet exists is quite spectacular," said Maciej Konacki from the California Institute of Technology. "With three suns, the sky view must be out of this world -- literally and figuratively." The triple-star system, HD 188753, is located 149 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus. The...

Three-star system ejects weakest link Thu Jan 9, 7:59 AM ET Dan Vergano USA TODAY SEATTLE -- Astronomers report a first sighting of a round of Survivor set in space -- a weakling brown dwarf star being booted out of a triple-star solar system. Brown dwarfs are ''failed'' stars with relatively low mass. They are huge, but they lack the heft needed to light up with the nuclear fusion that powers true stars. Numerous brown dwarfs have been spotted in recent decades, even in regions of space not associated with star formation. Seeing one ejected from a solar system suggests...