A team of international researchers led by Aussie astronomers from Monash University have said that they have discovered a multi-planet system with similarities to the Star Wars planet, Tatooine.
The desert planet of Tatooine is probably the most visited planet in the entirety of Star Wars. It’s where the first movie, A New Hope, spends much of its time, following the young Luke Skywalker as he meets Han Solo, Chewbacca, and Obi-Wan Kenobi. The planet makes its return then (by order of release) in Episode VI, Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, Episode IX, The Mandalorian, and Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi.
And now, a planetary system containing a number of planets has been discovered – with each planet sharing a striking similarity to the sandy planet Tatooine – a dual-star system.
The planets of the BEBOP-1 (otherwise known as TOI-1338) system orbit around two stars, which is an incredibly rare discovery. Of some 3,200 solar systems discovered throughout the universe, the researchers said that only 12 circumbinary systems have been discovered – and this is only the second one to be found that has more than one planet. BEBOP-1 is home to several planets – TOI-1338b and the newly discovered BEBOP-1c.
“With an orbital period around 6.5 times that of the binary, BEBOP-1c is almost as close as it can be to the two stars – any closer and it would be kicked out of the system by the binary’s strong gravitational field,” study co-author Doctor Rosemary Mardling said.
“And with a period only twice that of BEBOP-1c, TOI-1338b is also perilously close to being thrown out of the nest. This tells us much about the conditions in which such planets form.”
And just to close this article off, I want to give you a beautiful line from the research paper which I think is just brilliant writing:
“If we are to unravel the mysteries of circumbinary Tatooine-like exo-atmospheres, the BEBOP-1 system may provide a new hope.”
I see you, Star Wars fan! Congratulations to the whole team for the discovery. The team is now moving on to try and measure the size of the newly discovered planet.
You can read the study in Nature Astronomy.