Slashdot Mirror
Planet Found in Double Star System
Daniel Dvorkin writes "CNN is reporting that a planet has been found in a double star system. I know, another extrasolar planet -- whoopee! But this one is different since it is in a double star system, and because given the size of the stars (the larger one is about 1.6 times as big as the Sun), the orbit (a little bigger than that of Mars), and the planet (somewhat bigger than Jupiter) it seems very possible that the planet might have a moon of roughly Earth's size and climate. I believe this is the first discovery that comes close to matching those criteria."
What sucks for the civilizaiton on that planet is that they may never learn to navigate spacecraft since the 3 body problem created by having 2 suns is inherently chaotic.
Pretty much everything in this comment is wrong. There are chaotic and non-chaotic solutions to the three-body problem. Sun, earth, moon is an example of the latter.
I suspect that if a planet was in an a chaotic orbit between two stars, then civilizations are not so likely, because climate variations could be extreme (e.g., Mars orbit one year, Venus orbit the next). But if a civilization did exist, then I can't see why they could not learn spacecraft navigation. Thr first challenge is to build rockets powerful enought to leave the planet - this is independent of the planet's orbit. Once they have gotten that far, I am sure the chaotic orbit wont stop them from sending the spacecraft to other planets.
Tor