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Solar System Kepler-47
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
An artist's illustration of the alien solar system Kepler-47, a twin star system that is home to two planets. The planets have two suns like the fictional planet Tatooine in the "Star Wars" universe.
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Kepler-47: Twin Suns for Planets Like Tatooine
Credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com contributor
Scientists using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope data have found two planets orbiting a binary star, like Tatooine from Star Wars. Here's how the Kepler-47 star system works.
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Kepler-47 Tatooine-Like Planets: Orbit Diagram
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
This illustration shows the orbits of the two alien planets circling two stars of Kepler-47, and the orbits of our own solar system planets for comparison.
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Alien Planets with 2 Suns in Kepler-47
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
This artist's illustration shows a comparison of the two alien planets discovered to orbit twin stars in the Kepler-47 system. The smaller planet is up to 4.6 times the Earth's diameter. The larger world is likely slightly larger than Uranus.
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Kepler-47: Two Planets Circling Two Stars
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
This screenshot from a NASA animation depicts the two known planets in the Kepler-47 system, as well as their double parent stars.
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Orbital Paths of Kepler-47 Planets
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/T. Pyle
This screenshot from a NASA animation shows the orbital paths taken by the two known planets in the Kepler-47 system, which both orbit the same two stars.
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Kepler Space Observatory
Credit: NASA.
An artist's interpretation of the Kepler observatory in space.
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Hobby-Eberly Telescope
Credit: Marty Harris/McDonald Observatory/UT-Austin
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope in West Texas. The telescope is one of two McDonald Observatory instruments used to perform follow-up observations on the Kepler-47 star system, which is home to two alien planets that orbit twin stars.
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Harlan J. Smith Telescope at McDonald Observatory
Credit: Marty Harris/McDonald Observatory/UT-Austin
The 2.7-meter (107-inch) Harlan J. Smith Telescope at The University of Texas at Austin's McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The telescope is one of two McDonald Observatory instruments used to perform follow-up observations on the Kepler-47 star system, which is home to two alien planets that orbit twin stars.
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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.
