New Jupiter-Sized 'Star Wars' Planet Has 2 Suns
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Scientists have found a world 3,700 light-years away that bears a striking similarity to Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's home planet in Star Wars. It has 2 suns.
Astronomers from NASA and San Diego State University have dubbed the planet Keppler-1657, after the telescope they used to find it. News of the discovery was published in the May 2016 issue of Astrophysical Journal.
Kepler-1657 has a nearly the same exact mass and radius as Jupiter, making it "the largest transiting circumbinary planet ever found." The term circumbinary applies to a planet that orbits two suns.
It takes 1,107 days for the 4.4 billion-year-old planet to orbit its stars, and it does so at a distance far enough away to place it in the so-called habitable zone -- not too hot, and not too cold for water to pool on its surface.
As for the two suns, they are similar Earth's star, but one is slightly larger, and the other is slightly smaller.
Extraterrestrial humanoids are not likely gazing into the sunsets on Kepler-1657, as Luke Skywalker so famously does on Tatooine. Scientists say it's not likely the gas giant could host life, but perhaps one of its moons could.