Planet Kepler-16b [720p]

This artist's movie illustrates Kepler-16b, the first directly detected circumbinary planet, which is a planet that orbits two stars. The movie begins by showing the gaseous surface of the rotating planet then pans out to show the stars it orbits.

The two orbiting stars regularly eclipse each other, as seen from our point of view on Earth. The planet also eclipses, or transits, each star, and Kepler data from these planetary transits allowed the size, density and mass of the planet to be extremely well determined. The fact that the orbits of the stars and the planet align within a degree of each other indicate that the planet formed within the same circumbinary disk that the stars formed within, rather than being captured later by the two stars.

NASA's Kepler telescope discovered the planet by observing it cross in front of, or transit, the pair of stars from our point of view on Earth. The stars can also be detected eclipsing each other. Stellar eclipses are shown here, as well as the transits of the planet across both stars.

Such events allow astronomers to measure the sizes of the stars and the planet with extreme accuracy. Kepler-16b is one of the most accurately measured planets outside our solar system, with a size (radius) of 0.7538 that of Jupiter; a mass of 0.333 that of Jupiter (about the mass of Saturn), and a density of 0.964 grams per cubic centimeter. The planet is cold, lying just beyond the "habitable zone" of its star, and is made up of about half gaseous material with a rocky core.

The largest star in the Kepler-16b system is a bit smaller than our sun (about 69 percent of its mass), and the smaller star, called a red dwarf, is even lower in mass (about 20 percent of the sun's mass).

credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle

source: http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA14725

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Kepler-16b
• Kepler 16 system
• Tatooine
• exoplanet
• habitable zone

[rubiksfan2000]

so the planet is orbiting the yellow sun, and the red sun is also orbiting it ? i always thought the stars didn't really move and planets orbited them

[djxatlanta]

@rubiksfan2000 - they all orbit their common center of mass. Even in our own solar system, the Moon doesn't orbit the Earth; both bodies orbit around a common center of mass below the surface of Earth (but not at the center). And the planets don't orbit the sun, they (and the sun) orbit a common center of mass -- from a distance, the sun would appear to wobble here and there as the planets circle around. This wobble can be detected around other stars and reverse engineered to determine planets.

[1701what]

how fucking awesome to imagine watching two suns set

[Amat3uR84]

Tatooine... ciekawe, czy znajdą tam Mos Eisley

[ysbfd72]

150 degrees and plus for the people that think it looks fake its not

[flib08]

@rubiksfan2000 Yes stars move, the larger star has more mass than the smaller red dwarf star and the smaller star is therefore orbiting the larger star because of its gravity. Besides, all stars are moving around the centre of their galaxy it's just nearly impossible to notice. One we do notice move is called Barnard's Star.

[hallowedbeeddie]

I want to go to there

[RustyRazor2010]

I so want to go there...

[sketchyou]

1 person disliked?

seems he was looking for 3rd rock from the sun,

not 3rd rock from 2 suns..

[Fly205Productions]

APOD it, Like it :)

[RootSuitMan]

this 3d animation proves everything

[fallenangel80]

@Amat3uR84 hahahahahha