We have all known since elementary school that our solar system consists of one sun that all the planets revolve around. We also know that there are countless other suns in galaxies far far away from our solar system, which are visible to our naked eyes as shining stars in a clear night sky. Countless planets in the universe feed off their sun (not our sun) but do you know that NASA has discovered a planet that has two suns?
This planet is roughly 200 light years away from Earth, according to NASA. It is now known as Kepler-16B. It is thought that, like Saturn, this planet is composed of frigid gasses. It was found by NASA’s powerful telescope, Kepler. This planet is comparable to the fictitious Tatooine planet from the Hollywood blockbuster Star Wars. NASA noted, though, that there isn’t any evidence of Earth-like life on this planet as of yet.
The Kepler telescope made its first discovery of a planet in a “circumbinary” orbit—one that circles two stars rather than just one—with Kepler-16b. If you could stand on Kepler-16b’s surface, it would have two sunsets, just like Luke Skywalker’s home planet Tatooine. On the other hand, this planet is probably gaseous, somewhat composed of rock, and cold, roughly the size of Saturn.
It is outside the “habitable zone” of its two stars, which is where liquid water could be found. Additionally, the planet’s stars are likely dead because they are colder than our sun. Of course, we may find the positive side of things. The discovery of the new planet may increase the likelihood that life exists in our galaxy, according to Bill Borucki, the now-retired NASA principal investigator for Kepler at Ames Research Centre, Moffett Field, California, who announced the discovery in 2011.
The mass of the first sun is 69 per cent of the mass of the Earth’s Sun, while the mass of the second is only 20 per cent. NASA estimates that the temperature of this planet is around minus 73 to 101 degrees Celsius. The Kepler telescope was installed by NASA in 2009.
Comments
0 comment