Discover a planet with two suns

What makes this Tatooine-like planet even more special is that another planet orbits these two stars. This means that this Tatooine-like planet is part of a multi-planet system and this is something we haven’t seen very often…

The researchers write about it in the journal natural astronomy. In the journal, they announced the discovery of BEBOP-1c. The planet revolves around two stars. And, perhaps most surprisingly, this planet is not alone; Another planet orbiting the two stars.

Find Tatooine
For a long time, a planet with two suns was pure science fiction. Literal! Because we have known such a planet mainly from the famous Star Wars. In that series of films, we meet Luke Skywalker who grew up on Tatooine, a desert-like planet with not one, but two parent stars. Although the planet originated entirely in the brain of creator George Lucas, research in 2011 showed that planets with two suns do indeed exist. Then the researchers came across – for the first time! – about 200 light-years from Earth on a planet orbiting two stars. Researcher Alan Boss noted at the time that “what was science fiction has become reality”.

Two suns and two planets
We are now more than 10 years later and astronomers have already discovered about 12 systems in which a planet orbits two stars. But until recently, only one system was known to us in which not just one planet, but several planets revolved around two parent stars. The new research changes that; With the discovery of BEBOP-1c, we now know of another system with two parent stars and two planets.

discovery
It’s funny that astronomers made this remarkable discovery somewhat by accident. In fact, they were planning to further research BEBOP-1b. This planet was already discovered in the same system in 2020 and therefore also orbits two parent stars. It was the TESS space telescope that discovered BEBOP-1b when it passed repeatedly in front of the brightest main star, blocking some of the starlight.

Mass
After the discovery of BEBOP-1b, researchers quickly determined the size of the planet. But scientists could not estimate the mass of the planet either. In an effort to change this, scientists have resorted to the so-called Doppler method. An attempt was made to determine the mass of this planet from the oscillating motions of the parent star – caused by the planet’s gravitational pull on the parent star. But in the case of BEBOP-1b, this approach also did not result in an accurate mass determination, but it did lead to the discovery of BEBOP-1c (which the researchers were also able to directly determine the mass of).

About BEBOP-1c
BEBOP-1c takes 215 days to complete one orbit for both parent stars and is 65 times more massive than Earth. “This is about five times lighter than Jupiter,” said researcher Matthew Standing. He is naturally delighted with this discovery. “So far, we know of only 12 systems in which a planet orbits two stars, and this is only the second system in which more than one planet orbits two stars.”

At this point, it cannot be ruled out that more planets await discovery in the BEBOP-1 system. More observations are needed to further explore this possibility. Follow-up observations are also needed to determine the magnitude of BEBOP-1c. In addition, the researchers want to continue trying to determine the mass of BEBOP-1b, which is still unknown. However, based on the observations that accidentally led to the discovery of BEBOP-1c, the researchers can infer where the upper limit lies when it comes to the mass of BEBOP-1b. From this it follows that the planet has a density less than that of a sponge cake. This makes the planet very special and invites the James Webb Space Telescope to take an extra look at it. If it does, then more clarity can also be gained about the formation of the planet and possibly also about the environment in which it was born.