Planetary system with two Suns discovered

An artist reconstruction showing what a double sunset might look like on a distant world. A new study finds that worlds with two Suns like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine might be commonplace throughout the universe.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Scientists have discovered a huge alien planet in a system with two Suns similar to the fictional world of Tatooine in the Hollywood science fiction Star Wars: A New Hope. The new giant gas planet, found by an international team of astronomers, orbits the primary star identified as HR 7162, which is part of a binary star system 49 light-years away, in the constellation Lyra.

The researchers found the planet using a method called astrometry, which precisely tracks the position of stars over time, LiveScience reported. The techniques we're developing could help us better locate Earth-like planets in our local neighbourhood in the galaxy, said study leader Matthew Muterspaugh of Tennessee State University.

The new gas giant isn't the only known planet with more than one sun. Researchers have discovered dozens of them, meaning double sunsets like those seen on Luke Skywalker's home planet of Tatooine in the Star Wars movie may not be so rare.

To find the planet using astrometry, Muterspaugh and his team studied the periodic variations in the star HR 7162's location, which indicated something big was tugging on it with its gravity, betraying the presence of the new extrasolar planet.

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