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Twin Sun Planet Kepler 35b
Credit: Lynette Cook
An artist's illustration of Kepler-35 b, a Saturn-size planet around a pair of sun-size stars, as envisioned by artist Lynette Cook. The discovery of Kepler-35b and another twin sun planet, Kepler-34 b, was announced Jan. 11, 2012 and represent a new class of circumbinary planets.
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Twin Sun Planet Kepler 35b: Mark Garlick
Credit: Mark A. Garlick
An artist's illustration of Kepler-35 b, a Saturn-size planet around a pair of sun-size stars, as envisioned by artist Mark A. Garlick. The discovery of Kepler-35b and another twin sun planet, Kepler-34 b, was announced Jan. 11, 2012 and represent a new class of circumbinary planets.
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Twin Sun Planet Kepler 35b: Lior Taylor
Credit: Lior Taylor
An artist's illustration of Kepler-35 b, a Saturn-size planet around a pair of sun-size stars, as envisioned by artist Lior Taylor. The discovery of Kepler-35b and another twin sun planet, Kepler-34 b, was announced Jan. 11, 2012 and represent a new class of circumbinary planets.
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Planet Orbiting Two Suns
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
This artist's concept illustrates Kepler-16b, the first planet known to definitively orbit two stars -- a real-life Tatooine, from 'Star Wars.' The planet, which can be seen in the foreground, was discovered by NASA's Kepler mission.
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Real-Life Tatooine Planet
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA's Kepler mission has discovered a world where two suns set over the horizon instead of just one. The planet, called Kepler-16b, is not thought to be habitable. It is a cold world, with a gaseous surface, and it circles two stars, just like "Star Wars" Tatooine.
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Kepler-16 System, Compared to Our Inner Solar System
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
This artist's concept illustrates the Kepler-16 system (white) from an overhead view, showing its planet Kepler-16b and the eccentric orbits of the two stars it circles (labeled A and B). For reference, the orbits of our own solar system's planets Mercury and Earth are shown in blue.
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Binary Sunset on Tatooine
Credit: Twentieth Century Fox/LucasFilm
Film still from 'Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope' showing the sunset on the planet Tatooine.
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Hunting Alien Earths: Kepler Stares At Stars
Credit: NASA
NASA's Kepler mission is searching for Earth-like planets by looking for them to cross the face of alien stars.
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Kepler's Field of View Superimposed on the Night Sky
Credit: Carter Roberts
This is Kepler's field of view superimposed on the night sky.
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Kepler Field of View Star Chart
Credit: Software Bisque
This star chart illustrates the large patch of sky that NASA's Kepler mission will stare at for the duration of its three-and-a-half-year lifetime. The planet hunter's full field of view occupies 100 square degrees of our Milky Way galaxy, in the constellations Cygnus and Lyra.
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Kepler Transiting Planet Candidates
Credit: Jason Rowe/ NASA Ames Research Center/ SETI Institute
A visible graphic of the 1,235 planets Kepler announced last winter. Over 350 planets ranked as "Earth size" or "Super Earths."
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Kepler Planets Diagram
Credit: NASA/Kepler Mission/Wendy Stenzel
Comparative sizes of planets discovered by Kepler. Jupiter, Neptune and Earth are shown for comparison as well. "RE" in the diagram means size relative to Earth or RE = Radius of the planet in Earth radii.
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Kepler Planets Temperatures and Sizes Chart
Credit: NASA/Ames, W. Stenzel
Chart showing temperatures and relative sizes of the Kepler planets that have been discovered.
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Kepler Spacecraft to Hunt Earth-Like Worlds
Credit: NASA.
An artist's interpretation of the Kepler observatory in space.
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Kepler planets illustration
Credit: Nature
An artist's illustration of the extrasolar planets discovered around the star Kepler 11 by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope.
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Multiple Sunsets Like Tatooine
Credit: NASA/JPL's Planetquest/Caltech
Luke Skywalker’s home planet of Tatooine in Star Wars had two suns, but that’s paltry compared to a Jupiter-like planet 149 light-years from Earth. This planet has three suns, with the main star similar in mass to our own sun. The triple-star system is known as HD 188753. Like Tatooine, the planet there is likely pretty hot – it orbits very close to the main star, completing one orbit every 3.5 days.
