U.S. astronomers discover planet with two suns

Discovery is located at 200 light years from Earth

WASHINGTON - U.S. astronomers discovered the first planet orbiting two suns, like that of Luke Skywalker in the movie "Star Wars", an unprecedented finding in the annals of astronomy, according to a study published Thursday.

The exoplanet (or planet outside our solar system) orbiting two suns in a nearly perfect circle about 200 light years from Earth, was named Kepler-16b.

But unlike Tatooine, Skywalker's home planet, which was hot and desert-16b Kepler is a cold frozen and Saturn-sized world.

Details of the discovery

The planet was observed with the Kepler telescope of the U.S. space agency NASA, a device that controls the brightness of 155 000 stars, according to research published in the journal Science.

"This discovery is surprising," said one of the authors, Alan Boss, Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institution for Science.

"Once again, it used to be science fiction has become reality," he said.

For the first time

Previously, astronomers had identified planets before they believed they were orbiting two stars, but the first time I really seen one that passes in front of his two soles.

"Kepler-16b is the first such confirmed unequivocally circumbinario a planet that orbits a planet, not one but two stars," said another author of the study, Josh Carter, the Center for Astrophysics Harvard-Smithsonian (CfA) .

"Once again we discovered that our solar system is just one example of the variety of planetary systems that nature can create," he said in a statement.

Sunset with two suns

If there are living beings in Kepler-16b, could see a sunset with two suns, but this scenario is highly unlikely due to the extreme temperature of the frozen planet of -73 to -101 degrees Celsius.

The cold is probably the fact that although the planet has two suns orbiting each for 229 days at a distance of 105 million kilometers, are smaller and cooler than our Sun only.

One of the soles of Kepler-16b has a mass equivalent to 20% of ours, and the other 69%.

Surprising finding

As the world's orbit, the two Suns dance together in an "eccentric orbit of 41 days," the study said.

This research was conducted by the scientist Kepler Laurance Doyle, SETI's search for intelligent extraterrestrial life, based in California.

Published in the journal Science on 15 September is also the subject of a presentation Thursday at the Conference "Extreme Solar Systems II", in Jackson Hole, Wyoming (west).

If there are living beings in Kepler-16b, could see a sunset with two suns, but this scenario is highly unlikely due to extreme temperature.

Water on the Red Planet!

Water on the Red Planet!: Space probe found what appears to be the liquid on Mars

In the bottom of the photo, you can see grooves that suggest the flow of water during Martian spring and summer, according to the study of images made by scientist Alfred McEwen of the University of Arizona in Tucson, and Riuchard Zurek of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

New data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter revealed the possible flow of water on Mars during the warmer months on Mars. On the other hand, experts said the Earth may have had two moons.

Nasa photo.

Source: noticias.univision.com