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Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Kepler-16b: A Planet with Two Suns
NASA ^
| September 20, 2011
| (see photo credit)
Posted on 09/19/2011 9:17:51 PM PDT by SunkenCiv
Explanation: If you stay up long enough, you can watch both suns set. Such might be a common adage from beings floating in the atmosphere of Kepler 16b, a planet recently discovered by the space-based Kepler satellite. The above animated video shows how the planetary system might look to a visiting spaceship. Although multiple star systems are quite common, this is the first known to have a planet. Because our Earth is in the orbital plane of both stars and the planet, each body is seen to eclipse the others at different times, producing noticeable drop offs in the amount of light seen. The frequent eclipses have given Kepler 16b the most accurate mass and radius determination for a planet outside our Solar System. To find a planet like Saturn in an orbit like Venus -- so close to its binary star parents -- was a surprise and will surely become a focus of research.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; astronomy; bebop; kepler16b; science; tatooine; xplanets
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1
posted on
09/19/2011 9:18:00 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
To: brytlea; cripplecreek; decimon; bigheadfred; KoRn; Grammy; married21; steelyourfaith; Mmogamer; ...
2
posted on
09/19/2011 9:18:47 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
Here's the original underlying YouTube link:
3
posted on
09/19/2011 9:21:17 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: KevinDavis; annie laurie; Knitting A Conundrum; Viking2002; Ernest_at_the_Beach; Mmogamer; ...
4
posted on
09/19/2011 9:22:38 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
To: SunkenCiv
5
posted on
09/19/2011 9:38:27 PM PDT
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet)
To: SunkenCiv
Looks like an old Analog cover.
To: SunkenCiv
Wasn’t this the name of a TV show, “MY TWO SUNS”?
To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
Lol, I am old enough to remember “My two sons
8
posted on
09/19/2011 10:57:08 PM PDT
by
lwoodham
(There are 10 kinds of people, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
To: SunkenCiv
9
posted on
09/19/2011 11:35:54 PM PDT
by
ari-freedom
(Thank you, Bob!)
To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
10
posted on
09/20/2011 1:37:00 AM PDT
by
skeptoid
(The road to serfdom is being paved by RINO's, and Lisa Murkowski is their mascot.)
To: ari-freedom
“The Force is strong with this one.”
11
posted on
09/20/2011 2:04:45 AM PDT
by
Christian4Bush
(PSA. As of 9/20/11, 413/488 days 'til we vote out/take out the trash. (Nov 6 2012))
To: SunkenCiv
Just another example of how strange and wonderful (with empahsis on the wonderful) our universe is.
12
posted on
09/20/2011 3:59:37 AM PDT
by
ixtl
(You live and learn. Or you don't live long.)
To: JoeProBono
13
posted on
09/20/2011 4:38:10 AM PDT
by
cripplecreek
(A vote for Amnesty is a vote for a permanent Democrat majority. ..Choose well.)
To: SunkenCiv
To: JoeProBono; SunkenCiv
15
posted on
09/20/2011 5:55:09 AM PDT
by
Daffynition
(“There are no compacts between lions and men, and wolves and lambs have no concord.” ~ Homer)
To: cripplecreek; Daffynition
16
posted on
09/20/2011 6:40:18 AM PDT
by
JoeProBono
(A closed mouth gathers no feet)
To: SunkenCiv
That video is the first thing that actually tells that the exo-planet orbits only one of the stars.
If the planet orbited both stars, did a figure 8 between the two stars, or orbited one of the stars and then they both orbited the other, that would be far more interesting to me.
As it is, this is just a bigger version of our Solar system, with Jupiter being replaced by the secondary star.
Important, but, not as cool as it could have been.
17
posted on
09/20/2011 6:52:12 AM PDT
by
Conan the Librarian
(The Best in Life is to crush my enemies, see them driven before me, and the Dewey Decimal System)
To: SunkenCiv
It’s more like a planet in a solar system in which one of the other planets is a dwarf sun. That would be pretty dang cool, I think, especially if the video is true to life, and the second sun is far inside the planet’s orbit.
To: JoeProBono; SunkenCiv; TheOldLady
Just daring me to pick you off out there, aren’t ya Joe?
To: left that other site
20
posted on
09/20/2011 7:22:00 PM PDT
by
SunkenCiv
(It's never a bad time to FReep this link -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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