Astronomers have discovered a new planetary system that resembles Tatooine, the fictional home of Luke Skywalker from Star Wars. Exoplanets called Tatooine worlds or circumbinary planets are found in star systems with two stars. Hence, someone standing on the surface of one of these planets would see two suns in the sky and experience two sunsets, just like Luke Skywalker.

These new Tatooine worlds, circling a pair of stars in the same solar system, have been found for the second time. This further indicates the proof that worlds like those in the Star Wars series are more prevalent than believed. NASA CAPSTONE Captures Its First Images of Moon, Successfully Tests GPS-Like Navigation Technology.

The planet was discovered by coincidence while researchers tried to examine BEBOP-1b, a separate planet they had already discovered circling a binary star system, located around 1,320 light years away. In the process, they found and named BEBOP-1c a second planet in the system, as per Nature Astronomy Journal. This planet, unlike Tatooine, is not expected to support lifeforms.

Bebop-1c is discovered to have 215 days orbiting its suns and a mass of 65 times that of Earth or roughly five times that of Jupiter. While Bebop-1c's actual size is unknown, scientists have calculated its mass to set an upper limit on how big another inner planet can be. NASA James Webb Space Telescope Uncovers Mystery, Finds Water Around a Comet in Main Asteroid Belt for the First Time.

Kepler-16b, the first circumbinary planet, was found in 2011. Kepler-47, which was found in 2012, is the previous such planetary system that had two stars and multiple planets. Prior to the discovery of Kepler-47, the majority of astronomers believed that binary stars with multiple planets could not exist and that changes in the parent stars' gravitational fields may force the planets to collide or be flung out of their orbits.

To understand more about the formation of circumbinary planets, the researchers will continue to investigate the BEBOP-1 system.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 15, 2023 02:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).