An exoplanet orbiting a double star
Monday, October 3, 2011 - 09:30
in Astronomy & Space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Kepler satellite, which has now reported the detection of 1781 candidate exoplanets (a planet around a star other than the sun), has also discovered that at least one of them orbits a double star. Each of the two stars in this new system is smaller than the sun (one is 0.2 solar-masses and the other is 0.69 solar-masses), and the planet, called Kepler 16, actually orbits around both of them (rather than orbiting only one).
