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16 Sep 11 - 11:25 AM (#3224233) Subject: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: open mike 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/ |
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16 Sep 11 - 11:38 AM (#3224238) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: GUEST,999 Cool............................................Very cool. |
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16 Sep 11 - 12:22 PM (#3224260) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Mrrzy Neat-O. Makes diurnality/nocturnality interesting, were life harbored. |
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16 Sep 11 - 12:42 PM (#3224273) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Bettynh 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." |
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16 Sep 11 - 12:42 PM (#3224274) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Charley Noble Two sunsets for the price of one! I can hardly wait until I see the ad campaign for this intergalactic vacation. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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16 Sep 11 - 12:54 PM (#3224281) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Bill D 2 suns discovered with planet between 'em. |
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16 Sep 11 - 04:25 PM (#3224386) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Joe_F "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. |
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16 Sep 11 - 04:27 PM (#3224389) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: John MacKenzie By the Time I Get to Two Suns ♫♪ |
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16 Sep 11 - 04:29 PM (#3224391) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Lighter Now you can tan in half the time. |
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16 Sep 11 - 06:50 PM (#3224431) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Q (Frank Staplin) What, no daughters? |
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16 Sep 11 - 07:06 PM (#3224438) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Bill D "Nightfall" is about people and their superstitions....and it does that VERY chillingly. |
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17 Sep 11 - 05:51 AM (#3224567) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Penny S. 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 |
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17 Sep 11 - 06:27 AM (#3224577) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Monique Reminds me of Helliconia... |
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17 Sep 11 - 10:01 AM (#3224647) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Charley Noble 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 |
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17 Sep 11 - 03:37 PM (#3224790) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Penny S. 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 |
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18 Sep 11 - 04:59 AM (#3225035) Subject: RE: BS: Planet discovered with 2 suns From: Penny S. 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 |
