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| Artist's conception of planet (dark circle) orbiting two suns Photo: NASA |
Voice of America, September 15, 2011, Astronomers say they have discovered a planet that orbits around a pair of stars. It is the first time a so-called circumbinary system has been detected.
Movie fans might be familiar with the score of "Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope," the blockbuster movie from 1977. Luke Skywalker stands on his stark home planet Tatooine. As he gazes pensively into the distance toward a pinkish sky, an orange sun descends toward the horizon, with a smaller white sun following close behind.
Well, move over, Tatooine, says John Knoll of Industrial Light and Magic, which created the special effects for the "Star Wars" films.
"Again and again we see that the science is stranger and cooler than the fiction," Knoll said.
Make way for reality -- Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars. That makes it a circumbinary planet.
A research team, led by scientist Laurance Doyle, used data from the Kepler space telescope to make the discovery. Read More from VOA
Movie fans might be familiar with the score of "Star Wars, Episode IV, A New Hope," the blockbuster movie from 1977. Luke Skywalker stands on his stark home planet Tatooine. As he gazes pensively into the distance toward a pinkish sky, an orange sun descends toward the horizon, with a smaller white sun following close behind.
Well, move over, Tatooine, says John Knoll of Industrial Light and Magic, which created the special effects for the "Star Wars" films.
"Again and again we see that the science is stranger and cooler than the fiction," Knoll said.
Make way for reality -- Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars. That makes it a circumbinary planet.
A research team, led by scientist Laurance Doyle, used data from the Kepler space telescope to make the discovery. Read More from VOA
(Source : Voice of America, USA)
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