BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns

Subject: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: open mike
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 11:25 AM

The existence of a world with a double sunset, as portrayed in the film Star Wars more than 30 years ago, is now scientific fact. NASA's Kepler mission has made the first unambiguous detection of a "circumbinary planet"--a planet orbiting two stars--200 light-years from Earth.

FULL STORY at
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2011/15sep_doublesuns/

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: GUEST,999
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 11:38 AM

Cool............................................Very cool.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:22 PM

Neat-O. Makes diurnality/nocturnality interesting, were life harbored.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Bettynh
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:42 PM

Ralph Waldo Emerson thought about such a situation:
"If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore, and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown!"

Isaac Asimov thought otherwise in his short story "Nightfall."

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Charley Noble
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:42 PM

Two sunsets for the price of one! I can hardly wait until I see the ad campaign for this intergalactic vacation.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 12:54 PM

2 suns discovered with planet between 'em.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:25 PM

"Nightfall" is a chilling story, but it is physically impossible. There is no way to keep 5 stars (I think it was) in stable orbits close enough to each other to serve as suns for a planet wandering among them. I gather that the recent discovery was of a planet circling a binary at a long distance compared to the stars' separation; so see from the planet they would always be in the same part of the sky. I don't know if it's possible for a planet to orbit *one* star of a binary, close in; if so, it would see a lot of daylight.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:27 PM

By the Time I Get to Two Suns ♫♪

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Lighter
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 04:29 PM

Now you can tan in half the time.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 06:50 PM

What, no daughters?

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Bill D
Date: 16 Sep 11 - 07:06 PM

"Nightfall" is about people and their superstitions....and it does that VERY chillingly.

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 05:51 AM

As far as I know, and this is first hand to me, the planet is outside the suns, not between them. Because the suns are orbiting each other, or rather their centre of gravity, they would always rise and set close together, like the images on Tatooine, and so not produce much complication of nights and days. Click on the link at the foot of the NASA release for modelling of orbits.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Monique
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 06:27 AM

Reminds me of Helliconia...

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Charley Noble
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 10:01 AM

This discovery could also trigger a new set of songs with the theme "sunrise/sunset."

It's also my understanding that the planet is orbiting outside the orbits of the two suns.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Penny S.
Date: 17 Sep 11 - 03:37 PM

The smaller star orbits the larger at a distance of 0.224 AU, the mean distance of Earth from the Sun. The planet orbits at a distance of 0.705 AU.

Here's an animation. Moving planet

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns
From: Penny S.
Date: 18 Sep 11 - 04:59 AM

The suns would not always be close in the sky, I now discover, but would never be so far apart that there would be no night. Short nights, some of the time, yes. How different from our situation that would be would depend on the angle of the planet's axis. The smaller sun is in a more elliptical orbit, so would be nearer at some times than others, affecting the insolation.

Penny