NASA's Big News: Star Trek Like Solar System

The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a circumbinary planet -- a planet orbiting two stars -- 200 light-years from Earth.

Unlike Star Wars' Tatooine, the planet is cold, gaseous and not thought to harbor life, but its discovery demonstrates the diversity of planets in our galaxy. Previous research has hinted at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation proved elusive. Kepler detected such a planet, known as Kepler-16b, by observing transits, where the brightness of a parent star dims from the planet crossing in front of it.

"This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life," Kepler Principal Investigator William Borucki, of NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., said. "Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now."

Read the whole thing and see the pretty pictures here.

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(Based on actual events.) Younger offspring (age 4.5): (singing softly to self while arranging a line of nine grapes on breakfast plate) Nine planets, fine planets, in our solar system. Nine planets, fine planets, go ahead and list 'em ... *
Kepler has discovered 11 new "solar systems" with 26 confirmed planets among them. They:
It seems the IAU ruling on what counts as a planet has stirred a little controversy in the Free-Ride home.
Dr. Free-Ride: (to younger offspring) Could you teach me all the words to your song about the planets. Younger offspring: It's secret.

Uh....

Star Trek =/= Star Wars. Gosh sake. FIX that. :(

By Luna_the_cat (not verified) on 15 Sep 2011 #permalink

Luna, I saw the post of Greg's title on my blogroll, knew which system he must be talking about (since Phil Plait had already made the relevant Star Wars references) and came over to say just that. But you beat me to it.

A sad waste of geek points.

By John Swindle (not verified) on 15 Sep 2011 #permalink

It's sad that you cannot decry
What's the diff? from SF to Sci-Fi --
But there is a fine line
Between Robert Heinlein
and Son of the Two-Headed Fly.

By Luna_the_cat (not verified) on 15 Sep 2011 #permalink

@4 - Exactly - can we stop pretending Star Trek ever offered anything original, please?

By Vince Whirlwind (not verified) on 15 Sep 2011 #permalink

Scotty: I can't do it, Captain. Not without the force.

By Charles Sullivan (not verified) on 16 Sep 2011 #permalink