A team of scientists at NASA Ames Research Center has found such a remarkable place in outer space: a new planet, called Kepler-16b, which orbits around two different stars.
"It’s an indication of what is possible — something entirely new and different, something very exotic," said lead scientist Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute of Mountain View, Calif.
This discovery evokes the emotional "Star Wars" scene where young Luke Skywalker ponders his future under two glowing orbs; all that’s missing is John Williams and the London Symphony soundtrack.
The planet resides in the western wing tip of the constellation Cynus, the swan. Of the three bright stars on the wing — barely visible with binoculars — Kepler16b is about a half a degree away from the star Iota.
But earthlings can’t get there, the team cautioned. It’s 200 light years away, so it would take about 3.5 million years to get there, if you travel as fast as the space probe Voyager.
About the size of Saturn, it has an ice-rocky core and a gassy helium-hydrogen atmosphere. The gravity is crushing. It’s cold — about 100 to 150 degrees below Fahrenheit, notably colder than the most frigid day ever in Antarctica. Although planets that orbit two stars instead of just one have been glimpsed before, none have been observed passing in front of, or transiting, their parent stars until now.
Astronomers believe that these "binary stars" are not so unusual — in fact, they are thought to comprise about half of all the stars in our galaxy. So our one sun galaxy may not be the norm.
