New Planet is Like 'Star Wars'' Tatooine (Infographic)

Newly discovered world orbits twin suns, just like the fictional home of Luke and Anakin Skywalker. (Image credit: Karl Tate, SPACE.com)

Astronomers on Sept. 15, 2011, announced the discovery of Kepler-16b, the first alien planet with two suns. The planet sees two sunsets just like Luke Skywalker did on Tatooine in the "Star Wars" science fiction universe. See how the twin suns are set up around the planet Kepler-16b in this SPACE.com infographic.

Karl Tate

Karl's association with SPACE.com goes back to 2000, when he was hired to produce interactive Flash graphics. Starting in 2010, Karl has been TechMediaNetwork's infographics specialist across all editorial properties. Before joining SPACE.com, Karl spent 11 years at the New York headquarters of The Associated Press, creating news graphics for use around the world in newspapers and on the web. He has a degree in graphic design from Louisiana State University. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Karl on Google+.

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.