Multiple Tatooine Worlds From Same Star System Picked Up For the Second Time; What Are These Planets?

For the second time, astronomers were able to find several Tatooine worlds within a singular star system. The discovery demonstrates that these unique planets could be more common than thought.

Tatooine Worlds

According to Live Science, Tatooine worlds are circumbinary planets or exoplanets within star systems that have two stars. Because of this, observers may get to see two Suns hovering over the sky and notice two sunsets.

Previously, these planets were thought to be remarkably rare due to their orbits' gravitational intricacies. However, their recent discoveries show that they could be quite common. With half of the Milky Way's sun-sized stars forming in pairs, there is a possibility that thousands more Tatooine worlds could be discovered.

EarthSky adds that these planets may offer valuable hints regarding the formation of planets.

Multiple Tatooine Worlds in Same Star System

Space.com notes that this new planet's discovery confirms the 2nd-known system that orbits around binary stars. The first one was the Kepler-16b, which was found in 2011. Closely after this discovery, the Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b were also found in 2012.

Ever since the first discovery, 14 various Tatooine worlds have been picked up. Most of them were detected by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, which had been decommissioned in 2018.

In a recent Nature Astronomy study, astronomers aimed their telescope on BEBOP-1, which is situated roughly 1,320 light years away from the Earth. BEBOP-1 was first found in 2020. However, as they were trying to study this planet, they came across a new one: BEBOP-1c, which is currently the 15th Tatooine world that is known to astronomers. The discovery makes BEBOP-1 an MCS, or multi-planetary circumbinary system.

Findings suggest that BEBOP-1c's mass is 65 times larger compared to Earth's or five times smaller compared to Jupiter's mass, EarthSky reports. The planet's orbit also takes roughly 215 days.

BEBOP-1 is also the second known MCS. The first one was the Kepler-47, which was found in 2012. Kepler-47 has a trio of exoplanets and is situated roughly 5,000 light-years away from the Earth.

Back in 2021, astronomers also hit a milestone with the discovery of the first circumtriple planet that orbited three suns in one system.

The astronomers will keep monitoring the BEBOP-1 system to learn more about the formation of circumbinary planets. Live Science notes the possibility of the system containing even more undiscovered planets.

Astrophysicist Matthew Standing from England's Open University explains that, with only 14 known circumbinary planets among the 5,200 discovered exoplanets, it is quite exhilarating to participate in this growing field of exoplanet science.

The researchers hope to use the powerful James Webb Space Telescope to examine the system deeper and learn more about its mysteries.

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