Thursday, August 30, 2012

Planets in a Double Star System (Kepler 47-b)



Back in the day when I was studying physics, there were many who said that a planet could never form around a binary star system. That seemed obviously wrong to a few of us who pointed out that if the stars were far enough away from the center of mass or if the center of mass didn't precess much (such as when one star is much more massive than another or when the bianaries are very close together), then planets should be able to form in such a system. And, well, what do you know.

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