a astronomy It is a revealing and impressive science. Astronomers are responsible for observing and analyzing celestial bodies in the universe, and they are always looking for explanations as to how the laws that govern the universe work in different locations.
In the immeasurable immensity of the Universe, we have already found different types of stars, from asteroids to black holes. One type of celestial body that we already know about are planets, and discoveries of some of these stars continue to amaze the scientific community, always with something innovative.
But the latest discovery stood out even in the community geek. This is because the discovered planet is similar to Tatooine, a planet featured in the “Star Wars” saga.
Discover a planet similar to “Star Wars”
Recently a group of scientists published in the journal natural astronomy The discovery of an exoplanet is very similar to Tatooine from the movie “Star Wars”. The main feature that unites the planets is that they both rotate and are part of binary systems, that is, they have two stars.
The name assigned to the planet was BEBOP-1c, referring to its binary system BEBOP-1. In addition, it was noted as a giant with a mass four times that of Neptune, which is one of the gas giants and the last planet in our solar system. Its orbit has been calculated to take about 215 days, which is the equivalent of seven months here on Earth.
Discovery details
The study authors stated that the COVID-19 pandemic hindered this discovery process. Matthew Sarding, author of the research, said:
This was a difficult system to confirm and our observations were interrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic, when telescopes in Chile were closed for six months, during an important part of this planet’s orbit. This part of the orbit became observable again last year, when we were finally able to finish the discovery.”
Refers to the European Southern Observatory (ESO), located in Chile and used for detection. Moreover, BEBOP-1c is the second exoplanet in the binary system, making it the first system to have more than one known orbiting star.
Now, Tatooine’s “brother” will be used to decipher the formation conditions of planets in a system with two suns. It is noteworthy that Tatooine appears in the “Star Wars” series of films as a hot desert planet, with very clear stars in the sky.
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