The Latest: Tagged 'star wars'

SPACE.com reports that for the first time astronomers have discovered two alien planets puttering around two stars, likening the twin-suns-solar-system-scenario to Luke Skywalker's home turf of Tatooine in Star Wars. Double nerd alert.

NASA made the announcement Tuesday of "Kepler-47" -- a circumbinary planetary system located 4,900 light-years from Earth in the constellation Cygnus.

This discovery proves that more than one planet can form and persist in the stressful realm of a binary star and demonstrates the diversity of planetary systems in our galaxy.

Astronomers detected two planets in the Kepler-47 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other every 7.5 days from our vantage point on Earth. One star is similar to the sun in size, but only 84 percent as bright. The second star is diminutive, measuring only one-third the size of the sun and less than 1 percent as bright.