Here's a movie-geek screening test: What is Tatooine? If you said Luke Skywalker's home world, a desert planet with two suns, you pass. In September, researchers announced the discovery of a planet, now dubbed Kepler 16b, that, just like Tatooine, orbits a binary star system. Binary stars are not uncommon in the galaxy, but they were always thought to be gravitationally dangerous places for a planet to be. When two elephants are waltzing, you don't want to be the mouse that gets underfoot. With the help of the Kepler space telescope, however, scientists from the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute found subtle dips in the light coming from a binary system about 200 million light years from Earth. The dips were an average of 229 days apart a pretty solid sign that a planet is orbiting both stars, passing first in front of one, then in front of the other. No droids or galactic cafés are likely there, however. Unlike the real Tatooine, this one is deep-frozen at about 100°F (73°C).
The Top 10 Everything of 2011
- Top 10 Albums
- Top 10 Animal Stories
- Top 10 Apologies
- Top 10 Business Blunders
- Top 10 Buzzwords
- Top 10 Comebacks
- Top 10 Consumer-Spending Trends
- Top 10 Crime Stories
- Top 10 Campaign-Debate Moments
- Top 10 Best Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Worst Fashion Moments
- Top 10 Feuds
- Top 10 Fiction Books
- Top 10 Fleeting Celebrities
- Top 10 Food Trends
- Top 10 Gadgets
- Top 10 Green Trends
- Top 10 Marriage Stories
- Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs
- Top 10 Memes
- Top 10 Movie Performances
- Top 10 Worst Movies
- Top 10 Best Movies
- Top 10 New Findings in Parenting
- Top 10 New Species
- Top 10 Nonfiction Books
- Top 10 Numbers
- Top 10 Oddball-News Stories
- Top 10 Overreported Stories
- Top 10 People Not Running for President
- Top 10 Plays and Musicals
- Top 10 Political Gaffes
- Top 10 Protest Signs
- Top 10 Quotes
- Top 10 Religion Stories
- Top 10 Ridiculously Obvious Study Findings
- Top 10 Scandals
- Top 10 Smart-Phone Apps
- Top 10 Songs
- Top 10 Space Moments
- Top 10 Sports Moments
- Top 10 Toys
- Top 10 TV Ads
- Top 10 TV Episodes
- Top 10 TV Series
- Top 10 Best Tweets
- Top 10 Worst Tweets
- Top 10 U.S.-News Stories
- Top 10 Underreported Stories
- Top 10 Video Games
- Top 10 Creative Videos
- Top 10 Viral Videos
- Top 10 World-News Stories
- Top 10 Photos of the Year
In 54 wide-ranging lists, TIME surveys the highs and lows, the good and the bad, of the past 12 months