HONG KONG: For decades, astronomers have assumed that Earth-like planets cannot form around binary stars on account of wacky gravitational effects. Which, for Star Wars fans, was a total downer. But a new study suggests that not only is the formation of Tatooine-like planets very much possible, they may actually be quite common.
Unlike the accretion disk surrounding a young solitary star, the planet-forming environment around a binary system is subject to seriously disruptive gravitational ebbs and flows. In turn, many astronomers believed that the formation of rocky planets around binary stars is either very difficult or outright impossible. A new study by Ben Bromley from the University of Utah and Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory now suggests otherwise.
“Tatooine in Star Wars was inspirational to many of us,” Bromley told io9. “It was disappointing when earlier theories predicted that making Earth-like planets would be problematic or impossible. Our work shows that nature provides a clear path for making planets around binary stars, following the same recipe as for Earth.”
So, along with the discovery that terrestrial planets are common, so too are Tatooines, say the researchers.
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