Article Image

IPFS News Link • Space Travel and Exploration

'Star Wars' Planet with 2 Suns Challenges Theories

• Space

A huge alien planet discovered in a system with two suns akin to the fictional "Star Wars" world of Tatooine is forcing astronomers to rethink their theories about how gas giant planets form.

The two stars are close enough together that the leading theory for planet formation — that dust and gas circling the stars slowly accrete into such planets' rocky cores — isn't likely,

1 Comments in Response to

Comment by RunAmok
Entered on:

Another cool find, and I loved the photo of Pluto with its moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra (which has nothing to do with the story, but is a neat pic nonetheless).

I'm beginning to wonder if the model being used to "discover" all of these extra-solar planets isn't sound. Really huge gas giants (large enough to make Jupiter look like a planetoid) seem to be very over-represented in our galactic neighborhood. Granted, bodies that size would be the first to be discovered. I just have a hard time thinking they're quite that commonplace. 

 



Agorist Hosting