'Star Wars' planet like Tatooine that orbits two suns discovered by Nasa

A planet which orbits two suns - just like Tatooine in the Star Wars films - has been found by Nasa's Kepler telescope.

Planet Kepler-16b, which is 200 light years from Earth, enjoys a double sunset each day.

But although Luke Skywalker's home planet in the science fiction saga is rife with indigenous lifeforms, Kepler-16b's harsh environment makes it almost certainly uninhabitable.

The cold gas giant's two stars are 69 per cent and 20 per cent the mass of our sun, resulting in surface temperatures which rarely rise above -70C.

The Kepler telescope was launched in 2009 to scour our section of the Milky Way for Earth-like planets.

It is able to find new planets by detecting regular dimming of light from a star, indicating it is being orbited.

Researchers found that two stars were orbiting each other, resulting in regular eclipses, but also noticed further dimming of the light being emitted from both on a smaller scale, which indicated an orbiting planet.

Alan Boss, a researcher at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC and a member of the team that discovered Kepler-16b, said: 'This discovery is stunning.

'Once again, what used to be science fiction has turned into reality.'

Courtesy :Metro.co.uk

======================================================= 

Join Our Fan Page = www.facebook.com/wethepakistanis 

Visit Our Website = www.wethepak.com =======================================================