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More Star Wars-like worlds emerge as 27 planet candidates with two suns discovered

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UNSW Sydney astronomers Scientia A/Prof. Ben Montet and Ms Margo Thornton. Credit: UNSW Media / Richard Freeman. There's so little we know about circumbinary planets—planets that orbit two stars instead of one—that they can feel like the stuff of fantasy. And for good reason: to date, we've only confirmed the existence of 18 circumbinary planets, compared to the more than 6000 planets we know about in single star systems. Even the most widely-known circumbinary planet is, quite literally, fiction: the desert planet Tatooine from Star Wars, aka the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker. But a study led by UNSW has now detected 27 potential circumbinary planets in one sweep, using a new planet-finding method that broadens the typical type of planets we can find. The findings were published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , just in time for May the 4th, Star Wars Day. "Most of our current knowledge on planets is biased, based on how we've looked for them," says Ms.…

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