(Image source: NASA)
 

BY MARC STEIDLER

You’re watching multisource science video news analysis from Newsy

For the first time, scientists at NASA have confirmed a planet with two suns exists somewhere George Lucas is smiling. The head of the research team that found the planet joined CNN to explain the significance of the discovery.

“We’ve discovered a fundamentally different kind of planetary system. So It’s really exciting because that will have repercussions for us understanding our own planetary system, by comparison with something really different.”

Double-star systems are common in the Milky Way, but it was never clear whether a planet could survive in such a system. TIME offers up a metaphor.

“When two elephants are waltzing, it could be very difficult for mice to tiptoe safely under their feet.”

Scientists affectionately call the planet “Tatooine,” after Luke Skywalker’s home in Star Wars, but it’s official name is Kepler-16b, named for the Kepler telescope. NASA says similar planets are out there.

“Since it is made of gas, Kepler-16b may not harbor life. But there is evidence that rocky planets with double sunsets are common in our galaxy.”

Want to know how the Kepler telescope discovers a planet 200 light years away? ABC has the answer.

“If [a planet] happens to pass in front of the star it circles, the ship’s camera would detect the tiny bit of light the planet blocks. Some math would then tell how big the planet is, and how big its orbit is.”

Scientists may not have much longer to turn “science fiction” into “science fact.” MSNBC notes Kepler’s current mission plan calls for the telescope to be out of commission one year from now.

“That would be a shame...because it looks as if it will take longer than expected for Kepler to get the data to identify Earthlike planets in Earthlike orbits around sunlike stars.”
 

Transcript by Newsy.