From the Boing Boing blog I see where the Kepler Space Telescope has discovered Tatooine! Yep, well almost. One planet orbiting two stars!!! Now there is something I bet you never thought you would read in print...well as news at least!
Studies of Kepler 16b continue to turn up strange and unusual items. Recent articles noted that 16b had very strange orbital dynamics which expressed itself as orbits of varying speeds. It was thought that the anomalies might be an unseen "ghost" planet. However the truth might be even weirder. The unseen companion may be a very dim star with 16b in orbit with it and the main star in the system. 16b of course would be no Tatooine. Even orbiting as close to the primary as it does, (orbiting as close to it's sun as Venus orbits our sun) because both stars are so dim that instead of being a hot desert world like Tatooine, it would instead be in permanent arctic like conditions. If 16b had a solid surface, temperatures there would be a bone chilling -100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Studies of Kepler 16b continue to turn up strange and unusual items. Recent articles noted that 16b had very strange orbital dynamics which expressed itself as orbits of varying speeds. It was thought that the anomalies might be an unseen "ghost" planet. However the truth might be even weirder. The unseen companion may be a very dim star with 16b in orbit with it and the main star in the system. 16b of course would be no Tatooine. Even orbiting as close to the primary as it does, (orbiting as close to it's sun as Venus orbits our sun) because both stars are so dim that instead of being a hot desert world like Tatooine, it would instead be in permanent arctic like conditions. If 16b had a solid surface, temperatures there would be a bone chilling -100 degrees Fahrenheit.
