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First Exoplanet Discovered Orbiting Two Stars
astroengine writes "For the first time, astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting binary stars. Kepler-16b, a Saturn-sized world approximately 200 light-years away, orbits Kepler-16, two stars locked in a mutual dance. Although other exoplanets are known to exist in binary systems, they have only been known to be orbiting one star of the binary pair; Kepler-16b orbits both. No doubt Kepler-16b will excite memories of Tatooine, Luke Skywalker's homeworld, but the double sunset is where the similarities end. Kepler-16b would be anything but a desert world; it is the approximate size of Saturn, it is extremely cold, and its average density is that of water."
The first planet orbiting two stars?
The exoplanet part being redundant.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
A desert doesn't have to be hot and covered in sand.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
Tatooine? Would that thing not be much more like Solaris (the planet from the novel, not the OS), especially since it's density is that of water?
How do they calculate the density of these things? I get that they can detect the mass from the wobble of the star. How do they calculate the volume?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I think they're using the same AI that writes up spam comments to do their articles.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
No. This planet is not like Tatooine. It is likely to be very cold because both of the two stars are in fact quite dim. Much closer to Hoth than Tatooine. See Phil Plait's description here where he discusses how you can estimate the planet's probable temperature- http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/09/15/astronomers-discover-a-wretched-hive-of-scum-and-villainy/.
This planet had an orbit of 229 days. Kepler ideally desires three transits with two equal intervals to call it planet candidate. Kepler's observing duration is approaching the length where it could start detecting Earth-year planets now. The alternative experiments havent had enough sensitivity or duration to detect many Earth-year planets. Earth-year planets are likely to be in the habitable zone of G-type stars like the Sun.
I thought the next big Kepler data dump would be September 23 2011, after many of the preliminary papers had been published.
Not sure if that's true or not, but if the planet had a dense, large, rocky core, it could hold on to a thick, massive atmosphere that's far less dense than liquid water, at least for much of its overall volume.
Saturn is a good example in our own solar system - it has an overall density less than the density of water. If you had a big enough bathtub, you could float Saturn in it.
It would leave a ring, though...