Kepler Space Telescope Discovers Tatooine-Like Twin Star/Twin Planet System
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Posted Wednesday, Aug. 29, 2012, at 2:44 PM
Star Wars fans rejoice, a Tatooine-like planet has been discovered.
NASA's Kepler space telescope has discovered a binary—or a planet revolving around a pair of stars —nearly 5,000 light years away. Tatooine, the iconic home planet of Luke and Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars series, is also binary revolving around two stars, Tatoo I and Tattoo II.
Photo by NASA/Getty Images
This real life binary however also involves two planets, Kepler-47b, which completes its orbit around the two stars in 49 days, and an outer planet Kepler-47c, which finishes its orbit in 303 days. The latter planet is in the habitable zone, meaning it could have liquid water, but remains gaseous and not suitable for life (unless you count C-3P0).
Now, all we need is a video reaction from a blessed-out Star Wars fan …”double binary … all the way!”
Video by Krishnan Vasuvedan.
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