Astronomers have discovered 27 new potential planets orbiting two stars — like the fictional desert planet “Tatooine” from the Star Wars universe.
The study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, The Guardian reports.
To date, only about 18 so-called circumbinary planets — those orbiting two stars — have been known in the universe. Meanwhile, more than 6 000 planets have been discovered around single stars — similar to how Earth orbits the Sun.
In a publication marking Star Wars Day, May 4, scientists reported nearly 30 new planet candidates, ranging from 650 to 18 000 light-years from Earth.
More than half of the stars in the universe exist in binary or multiple systems. Previously, circumbinary planets were discovered through transits: when a planet passes in front of a star, it "casts a shadow" and slightly reduces its brightness — this is recorded by astronomers.
But this only works when the planet and star are perfectly aligned relative to our line of sight from Earth, so scientists are potentially missing many such systems.
To better identify such systems, the researchers used a method called "apsidal precession" — looking for small wobbles in systems where two stars orbit each other and periodically eclipse each other.
After ruling out other factors—such as the rotation and gravitational influence of the two stars—the research team found 36 star systems out of 1 590 whose behavior could only be explained by the presence of a third object.
Of these, 27 are likely to be planetary-mass objects, the scientists say. To definitively confirm them as circumbinary planets, further studies of their spectra, or the light they emit, are needed.
The potential planets — ranging in size from Neptune to masses ten times greater than Jupiter — were discovered using NASAʼs TESS space telescope, launched in 2018 to search for exoplanets.
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