There has been controversies since long about the existence of circumbinary planets, one which orbits two stars. Ending all such controversies, NASA has found Kepler-16b (named as it is searched by Kepler space telescope). Kepler-16b is around 200 light-years from Earth and it is orbiting two stars.
According to NASA, previous research did hint at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation remained mysterious until the Kepler mission’s latest discovery. The newly found circumbinary planet is likened to the fictional inhabited planet called Tatooine, which was portrayed as having two sunsets in the "Star Wars" series.
The newly discovered planet is not thought to harbor life. It is an an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas. Kepler-16b is comparable to Saturn in both mass and size and orbits around both the stars in 229 days. The two stars which Kepler-16b orbits are said to be smaller and cooler than our sun and 20 and 69 percent as massive as the sun.
Kepler Telescope is used to search for earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface.
According to NASA, previous research did hint at the existence of circumbinary planets, but clear confirmation remained mysterious until the Kepler mission’s latest discovery. The newly found circumbinary planet is likened to the fictional inhabited planet called Tatooine, which was portrayed as having two sunsets in the "Star Wars" series.
The newly discovered planet is not thought to harbor life. It is an an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn and thought to be made up of about half rock and half gas. Kepler-16b is comparable to Saturn in both mass and size and orbits around both the stars in 229 days. The two stars which Kepler-16b orbits are said to be smaller and cooler than our sun and 20 and 69 percent as massive as the sun.
Kepler Telescope is used to search for earth-size planets in or near the habitable zone, the region in a planetary system where liquid water can exist on the surface.
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