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Article: Twin-star systems enjoy double sunset.(Planets)
- Article from:
- USA TODAY
- Article date:
- June 1, 2007
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 Society for the Advancement of Education. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The double sunset that Luke Skywalker gazed upon in the film "Star Wars" might not be a fantasy, as astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have observed that certain celestial systems--containing dusty disks of asteroids, comets, and, possibly, planets--are at least as abundant in twin-star setups as they are in those, like our own, with only one star. Since more than half of all stars are twins, or binaries, the finding suggests the universe is packed with planets that have two suns. Sunsets on some of those worlds would resemble the ones on Skywalker's planet, Tatooine, where two fiery balls dip below the horizon one by one.
"There appears to be no ...