NASA Spacecraft Discovers Planet Orbiting 2 Suns, Just Like Star Wars
MOUNTAIN VIEW (CBS SF) - The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Kepler spacecraft has found a planet that orbits two stars just as Luke Skywalker's home world does in the Star Wars movies, NASA announced Thursday.
An orange sun and a red sun that actually orbit each other define daytime on Kepler 16b, the 21st planet outside our own solar system discovered by planet hunter.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
The resemblance between the newest exo-planet and the fantasy world Tatooine envisioned by George Lucas ends on the horizon, said scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View.
Kepler 16b is a cold, gaseous planet similar to Saturn.
"We don't expect Luke Skywalker, or anything else, to be living on Kepler 16b," said Nick Gautier, project scientist for the Kepler project.
Still, the theme music that played during the iconic film moment when Luke Skywalker gazes at two setting suns played as NASA revealed the discovery Thursday.
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