Tatooine-Like Planets Discovered: Kepler-47 System Has Multiple Worlds Orbiting Two Stars

Astronomers announced the discovery of a Tattoine-like planet, called Kepler-47, which orbits two sons, much like Luke Skywalker’s home world in the Star Wars movie series.

Star Wars fans are probably feeling a moment of chills wash over them at the new discovery of Kepler-47, considering how closely it resembles the home solar system of Skywalker, the series’ hero, reports The International Business Times.

The solar system consists of two planets, which orbit two suns. Jerome Orosz, associate professor of astronomy at San Diego State University and lead author of the paper, stated:

“In contrast to a single planet orbiting a single star, the planet in a circumbinary system must transit a ‘moving target.’ As a consequence, time intervals between the transits and their durations can vary substantially, sometimes short, other times long.”

The Tatooine-like planets’ discovery was announced by NASA on Tuesday, who noted that the system was found 4,900 light-years from Earth, in the constellation Cygnus. According to Space, Orosz went on to say:

“Kepler-47 shows us that binary stars can have close-in planetary systems, just like the ones we see in single stars. Most of the stars in the galaxy are in binary or higher-order multiple systems, so the fact that planetary systems can exist in these types of systems is important. If we were restricted to looking for planets around single stars, we would be missing most of the stars in the galaxy.”

Are you excited to see that NASA has discovered Tatooine-like planets, reminiscent of Luke Skywalker’s home world?

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