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NASA’s Kepler Mission has made the first detection of a planet orbiting two stars.

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About 200 light years away from our solar system, the planet Kepler-16b orbits two of the 150,000 stars

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that the spacecraft is monitoring between the constellations of Cygnus and Lyra.

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Kepler detected the planet directly through what is known as a planetary transit,

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an event where the brightness of a star dims as a result of a planet crossing in front of it.

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Planets orbiting double stars have been a favorite of science fiction writers for a long time,

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the most famous of which is from the 1977 movie “Star Wars,” which showed a double sunset

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viewed from the fictional planet of Tatooine.

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Until now, astronomers did not know if such planetary systems could actually exist.

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Because of Kepler-16, astronomers have confirmed that the double sunset seen by Luke Skywalker is possible.

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The planet Kepler-16b is cold, gaseous and about the size of Saturn.

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Its stars are both smaller than the Sun and about 2 billion years younger than our Solar System.

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They orbit around each other, so from our vantage point they take turns eclipsing each other about every 41 days.

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The planet Kepler-16b orbits around both stars every 229 days.

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It is outside of the habitable zone of the stars, which is the region where temperatures are right

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for liquid water to exist on the surface of the planet.

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Since it is made of gas, Kepler-16b may not harbor life, but there is evidence

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that rocky planets with double sunsets are common in our galaxy.