New Tatooine-like exoplanet discovered orbiting twin suns

For decades, astronomers wondered if planets with twin Suns like Luke Skywalker’s fictional home world of Tatooine were only science fiction.

- Charles Q. Choi

Now, scientists have discovered a new Tatooine-like system that’s home to multiple worlds. Binary stars, or two stars orbiting each other, are very common – about half of the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way Galaxy are in binary systems. Up to now, astronomers had confirmed the detection of 14 circumbinary planets – ones that whirl around both stars of a binary system at once. “Circumbinary planets were originally thought not to exist, since the binary stars stir up the planet-forming discs, creating a harsh environment for planets to form,” study lead author Matthew Standing, an astrophysicist at the Open University, said. “This all changed with the discovery of Kepler-16 b in 2011 by the Kepler space telescope. This discovery showed that it must be possible for these planets to form.”