Scientists may have found a new Tatooine-like planet orbiting two "failed stars" approximately 120 light years from Earth.
The planet follows a peculiar, perpendicular path around a pair of brown dwarfs. Brown dwarfs, sometimes referred to as failed stars, possess a mass greater than gas giant planets but less than stars.
The two brown dwarfs at the centre of this system were initially observed years ago. Scientists noted that the pair eclipse each other from Earth's perspective, resulting in one dwarf being partially obscured.
New analysis of the brown dwarfs' movement revealed a shift, a phenomenon less likely to occur if the dwarfs orbited each other in isolation.
This research has been published in Science Advances.
The discovery adds to a growing list of planets known to orbit binary star systems, reminiscent of the fictional desert planet Tatooine from Star Wars, famous for its double sunsets.
While over a dozen such planets have been identified, this new finding offers a unique glimpse into the dynamics of planetary systems around brown dwarfs.
The new planet’s odd orbit sets it apart. But it has not been directly spied, and scientists say more research is needed to be sure it is out there and figure out its mass and orbit.
“I wouldn't bet my life that the planet exists yet,” said Simon Albrecht, an astrophysicist with Aarhus University who had no role in the new study.
Probing these wacky celestial bodies can help us understand how conditions beyond our solar system may yield planets vastly different from our own, said study author Thomas Baycroft with the University of Birmingham.
Planets circling twin stars "existed in sci-fi for decades before we knew that they could even really exist in reality”, he said.
