Real-life Tatooine moment: Astronomers discover 27 ‘Star Wars’-like planets orbiting two suns<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nAstronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets orbiting two stars instead of one, mirroring the fictional desert planet Tatooine. star wars<\/i> Universe. <\/p>\n
So far, only 18 globular planets orbiting two stars are known to exist, while more than 6,000 planets orbiting one star are known to exist. <\/p>\n
A new survey conducted by researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) found 30 potential circumbinary candidates using the new methodology. <\/p>\n
According to the findings, coincides with star wars<\/i> day, these planets have been found at a distance of 650 to 18,000 light years from Earth. <\/p>\n
According to the study’s senior author, Associate Professor Ben Montet of the University of New South Wales (UNSW), “There are many things in astronomy that are not very tangible, but thanks to the famous Tatooine sunset scene in the first Star Wars film, everyone has a picture of what a spherical planet looks like and what it would mean to stand on a planet with two suns.” <\/p>\n
The methodology used in the latest study published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society<\/i>This is known as “apsidal precession”, which is based on looking for “wobble” between the ecliptic and the eclipsing stars around each other. <\/p>\n
The study includes monitoring the “exact timing of these eclipses” and changes in eclipse schedules. That way, we can understand that “there’s something else going on in the system,” Thornton said. <\/p>\n
To track the orbits, researchers used data from NASA’s NASA Space Telescope, launched in 2018. <\/p>\n
Previously, these orbiting planets were identified only by their transits when they passed in front of a star and cast a shadow on the star. But it also depends on the correct alignment between the planet and its star. That’s why scientists are struggling to identify possible planets. <\/p>\n
“This new method could help us uncover a large population of hidden planets, especially those that don’t perfectly match our line of sight. It could help reveal what the true population of planets is in our universe,” Thornton said. <\/p>\n
Using this method, the team discovered 27 planets out of 1590 binary star systems, accounting for 2 percent of binary systems that could potentially harbor these planets. <\/p>\n
These planets, to be named in future surveys, may range in size from as small as the mass of Neptune to as large as 10 times the mass of Jupiter.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sarah Webb, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University of Technology, expressed hope that this technique would allow researchers to discover more planets in the future. <\/p>\n
Compared to other planets, the atmospheres of orbiting planets are extremely extreme. But a planet like Tatooine can exist in neither a very hot nor a very cold environment. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n