Kepler finds first planet around a binary star

[Confusious]

(Space.com) It's a real-life Tatooine. A spectacle made popular by the "Star Wars" saga -- a planet with two suns -- has now been confirmed in space for the first time, astronomers revealed.

Scientists using NASA's Kepler space telescope captured details of a giant planet in orbit around the pair of binary stars that make up the Kepler-16 system, which is about 200 light-years away.

"This discovery is stunning," said study co-author Alan Boss at the Carnegie Institute in Washington. "Once again, what used to be science fiction has turned into reality."



http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/09/15/scitech/main20106865.shtml

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Science fiction writers will run out of material

:-)

[Confusious]

2. There are more things in heaven , nadin,

Than are dreamt of by mere humans.

Apologies to Shakespeare. And anyone who likes him.

I'm sure anything someone can dream up is out there, and more.

[saras]

3. You have GOT to be kidding. We haven't even caught up to FIFTIES science fiction.

Personally I'm waiting for Sturgeon's "The Skills of Xanadu" to come true, so that I will have some people to play music with.

The story is available at archive.org http://www.archive.org/details/13greatstoriesof00conk">here but you have to get a Daisy key http://www.loc.gov/nls/">here in order to read it.

It's also available through Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=wpuJQrxHZXAC&pg=PA51&lpg=PA51&dq=the+skills+of+xanadu&source=bl&ots=XS6iiRUFeU&sig=7D22WRvLV_I3WRc7gJRFL9-c6lE&hl=en&ei=eIJyTsC4E6bXiAKsxczgBw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC4Q6AEwATgK#v=onepage&q=the%20skills%20of%20xanadu&f=false">here.