Many researchers say that a ground-based telescope’s detection of a known Tatooine-like planet could herald discoveries of similar worlds.
Observers spotted Kepler-16b, which is an exoplanet that orbits two stars, similar to a world portrayed in the original series of “Star Wars,” using a relatively modest 75-inch telescope. The telescope is situated at Observatoire de Haute-Provence, roughly 60 miles north of Marseilles, France.
The planet was found initially in space using the transit method, during which the planet passed in front of one of its stars in front of the now-retired NASA Kepler space telescope.
The team says the discovery heralds a new series of work they plan to perform concerning so-called “circumbinary planets”, which means planets orbit two stars.
The scientists hope their telescope will next find previously unknown planets like this one, helping astronomers learn how planetary formation occurs in a solar system with two stars.
“Using this standard explanation, it is difficult to understand how circumbinary planets can exist,” lead author Amaury Triaud, a Birmingham exoplanet researcher, said in the statement. “That’s because the presence of two stars interferes with the protoplanetary disk, and this prevents dust from agglomerating into planets, a process called accretion.”
Triaud suggested the planet might have instead formed far away from the two stars and then migrated inward. But more study could reveal alternate scenarios forming double-starred planets, which in turn may shape scientists’ theories about how planets form more generally.
A study based on the research was published Tuesday (Feb. 22) in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.