Scientists Find More Planets Orbiting Two Stars
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: January 11, 2012
In the Star Wars movies, Luke Skywalkers home planet, Tatooine, orbits two suns, giving it two sunsets and two sunrises every day. In September, scientists discovered the first planet in our galaxy that does orbit two stars; now they have discovered two more and suggest that there are probably millions of these so-called circumbinary planets.
We found two more, and that immediately tells us wow, this wasnt a fluke, said William Welsh, an astronomer at San Diego State University who was involved in the research. Now that we have three, we can compare the differences and start to learn more about these as a class of planetary systems.
Dr. Welsh and his colleagues report their discovery of the planets in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The paper describes Kepler 34b and Kepler 35b, both gaseous planets about the size of Saturn; they are 4,900 and 5,400 light years from Earth, respectively.
The planets were identified by NASAs Kepler spacecraft, whose mission is to find other potentially habitable planets.
Life could exist on a circumbinary planet, Dr. Welsh said. The first to be discovered, Kepler 16, was just outside of what is known as the habitable zone, where liquid water, and therefore life, can exist. It is just a little too far from its suns, and too cold for life.
Kepler 34b, described in the current study, is also just outside of the habitable zone, in this case a bit too hot for life.
That to me is interesting, Dr. Welsh said. It may be that we search a bit more and find that Goldilocks.
Sourse: thenytimes.com
By SINDYA N. BHANOO
Published: January 11, 2012
In the Star Wars movies, Luke Skywalkers home planet, Tatooine, orbits two suns, giving it two sunsets and two sunrises every day. In September, scientists discovered the first planet in our galaxy that does orbit two stars; now they have discovered two more and suggest that there are probably millions of these so-called circumbinary planets.
We found two more, and that immediately tells us wow, this wasnt a fluke, said William Welsh, an astronomer at San Diego State University who was involved in the research. Now that we have three, we can compare the differences and start to learn more about these as a class of planetary systems.
Dr. Welsh and his colleagues report their discovery of the planets in the current issue of the journal Nature.
The paper describes Kepler 34b and Kepler 35b, both gaseous planets about the size of Saturn; they are 4,900 and 5,400 light years from Earth, respectively.
The planets were identified by NASAs Kepler spacecraft, whose mission is to find other potentially habitable planets.
Life could exist on a circumbinary planet, Dr. Welsh said. The first to be discovered, Kepler 16, was just outside of what is known as the habitable zone, where liquid water, and therefore life, can exist. It is just a little too far from its suns, and too cold for life.
Kepler 34b, described in the current study, is also just outside of the habitable zone, in this case a bit too hot for life.
That to me is interesting, Dr. Welsh said. It may be that we search a bit more and find that Goldilocks.
Sourse: thenytimes.com