Planet With Two Suns Proven There

Kepler-16b in Kepler-16 system (NASA)

It has been ascertained that there is a planet orbiting two stars. Unlike on Earth that has only one star (the sun). NASA's Kepler mission succeeded in proving that the planet is really a planet with two stars. The name of that planet is Kepler-16b.

Although it has two stars, but the planet is very cold, many contain gas and are not suitable for life (Kepler-16 system). This circumbinary planet, confirms a new system in the solar system, and there may be a new life there. 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 Had Scientists have for Decades but Could not PROVE until now.

A research team led by Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif.., Used data from the Kepler space telescope, the which measures dips in the brightness of more than 150000 stars, to search for transiting planets. Kepler is the first NASA mission capable of finding Earth-size planets in or near the "habitable zone," the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface of the Orbiting the planet.

Solar eclipse event on the planet was quite interesting. When the smaller star partially blocking a bigger star, then the primary eclipse occurs. And a secondary eclipse Occurs When The Smaller star is occulted, or completely blocked, by the larger star.

That Further astronomers observed the brightness of the system dipped even the stars were the resource persons Pls note eclipsing one another, hinting at a third body. The additional dimming in brightness events, Called the Tertiary and Quaternary eclipses, reappeared at irregular intervals of time, Indicating the stars were the resource persons in different positions in Their orbit each time the third body passed. This showed the third body was circling, not just one, but Both stars, in a wide circumbinary orbit.

The planet is estimated to consist of some rocks and some of the gas, has a suns whose mass is smaller than the mass of our sun. Only 69% of the largest solar and the other only 20%. The period of the planet around the stars is almost the same as the planet of Venus, which is 229 days. That is why, although the planet has two suns, but the planet is much colder than Earth.




Reprinted from NASA