<\/a>Not much on-line time today, so I will keep it short. Today’s BBC website has an entertaining little article about how “many planets have two suns<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Star Wars got it right!<\/p>\n

The BBC opens with:<\/p>\n

The dual suns that rise and set over Luke Skywalker’s homeworld in the film Star Wars may be more than just fantasy, according to data from Nasa.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a classic scene from the 1977 movie, the hero gazes into the distance as two yellow suns set on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Nasa’s Spitzer Space Telescope has found planetary systems are at least as abundant around dual stars as they are around single stars, like our own Sun. (Read Original<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Brilliant. Who would have thought George Lucas would have been so prescient…. Although the BBC (and I presume the article in the Astrophysical Journal<\/a>) did go on to qualify this: (emphasis mine)<\/p>\n

Dr Trilling said that if planets did exist in dusty discs around these binaries, they might be at distances where the conditions could be hospitable for life.<\/p>\n

“The Luke Skywalker picture is science fiction<\/strong>. But I don’t see anything that’s astronomically incorrect about it,” said the University of Arizona researcher.<\/p>\n

“With some of our systems, you could play with the geometry, put a planet there, get the temperatures right and make it look just like [Tatooine].”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Still, I am sure everyone who watched Star Wars (the proper one, not the rubbish new ones) as a child can still hope that one day…<\/p>\n

[tags]Science, Astrophysics, Cosmology, Star Wars, Planets, Spitzer, Space, Telescope, NASA, BBC, George Lucas[\/tags]<\/p>\n

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    Not much on-line time today, so I will keep it short. Today’s BBC website has an entertaining little article about how “many planets have two suns.” Star Wars got it right! The BBC opens with: The dual suns that rise … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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