| Topic: |
Science > Physics |
| User: |
"Sam Wormley" |
| Date: |
30 Mar 2007 08:32:40 PM |
| Object: |
Tatooine's Twin Suns Not So Far Fetched |
Tatooine's Twin Suns Not So Far Fetched
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/330/2
By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
30 March 2007
Who can forget the dramatic moment, early in the original Star Wars
film, when Luke Skywalker gazed wistfully at the twin setting suns on
his home planet of Tatooine? The image was so arresting that it didn't
seem to matter how fast and loose the story played with science. After
all, two stars so close together couldn't really support a stable
planetary system, right? Well, not so fast.
Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope to survey the local
galactic neighborhood have found that binary star systems produce
protoplanetary disks--the necessary precursors for planet formation--at
least as often as single stars such as our sun. But that's only half
the story. It turns out that binary systems whose stars orbit very
close together are even more likely to harbor disks--and, potentially,
planets--than single-star systems. "There appears to be no bias against
having planetary system formation in binary systems," says team leader
David Trilling of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "There could be
countless planets out there with two or more suns."
See: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/330/2
.
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| User: "Hondo" |
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| Title: Re: Tatooine's Twin Suns Not So Far Fetched |
01 Apr 2007 02:01:26 AM |
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Sam Wormley wrote:
Tatooine's Twin Suns Not So Far Fetched
http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/330/2
By Phil Berardelli
ScienceNOW Daily News
30 March 2007
Who can forget the dramatic moment, early in the original Star Wars
film, when Luke Skywalker gazed wistfully at the twin setting suns on
his home planet of Tatooine? The image was so arresting that it didn't
seem to matter how fast and loose the story played with science. After
all, two stars so close together couldn't really support a stable
planetary system, right? Well, not so fast.
Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope to survey the local
galactic neighborhood have found that binary star systems produce
protoplanetary disks--the necessary precursors for planet formation--at
least as often as single stars such as our sun. But that's only half
the story. It turns out that binary systems whose stars orbit very
close together are even more likely to harbor disks--and, potentially,
planets--than single-star systems.
No surprise at all nut nice to have confirmed. More matter in the formative
cloud to make things with. Maybe that means the creatures have two brains
and four eyes. Sixteen times the number
of planets. Early inter-planetary confederacies with several planets in the
same system inhabited. 10,000 times the problems getting
along. ............ only kidding.
klm
"There appears to be no bias against
having planetary system formation in binary systems," says team leader
David Trilling of the University of Arizona in Tucson. "There could be
countless planets out there with two or more suns."
See: http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2007/330/2
.
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