Habitable Planets Can Form in Binaries Research Suggests

Nearly 20% of all exoplanets found in surveys reside in binary star systems, which can be two, or possibly more, stars orbitting around a common center of mass. But can rocky, terrestrial, life-sustaining planets survive in the complex and harsh nature of a binary system? Nader Haghighipour thinks it can.

Simulations of moon and Mars sized objects lead researchers to believe habitable planets can certainly exist in the binary systems. Check out the research paper here:

http://arxiv.org/PS_cache/arxiv/pdf/0710/0710.0686v1.pdf

I can't believe that researchers didn't know this; haven't they ever seen Tatooine?

Super Blackhole

The most massive blackhole to date has been found located in the M33 galaxy about 3 light years from Earth. The blackhole, part of the M33 X-7 binary system, is by far the largest blackhole ever found at approximately 15.7 times the mass of the Sun.

It also has a companion star; an unusually large star that is nearly 70 masses of the Sun. THe companion star in this binary system also hits the record books because it is the largest companion star to a blackhole ever recorded.

This system also eclipses regularly, and is the only known blackhole/star binary system to do so. This allows for unusually accurate measurements and the extreme nature of this binary system make it a great place to check out our current astrophysics models.

However, how such a large blackhole and companion have formed is very difficult to explain using current physics models....

Wonder if string theory has the answer to this one!

55 Cancri: Enter the Habitable Zone

Nearly 40 light years away, a cosmic stone throw, there exists an interesting star system. 55 Cancri is a star system much like our own: it has planets in the "habitable" zone.

The binary star is less luminous as our own and evolutionary models place it at approximates 5,500 million years old. It has a magnitude of 5.95, and is visible through binoculars or even through the naked eye under very dark skies. A telescope even reveals its red dwarf companion.

There are currently four confirmed planets in the star system. Three have masses similar to that of Jupiter, and the innermost, "habitable" zone, planet has a mass comparable to Neptune.

Large spaces between confirmed planets b and c indicate that there is a high likelihood of smaller terrestrial planets in between.

The idea of a star system close in form and structure to our own is intriguing. Imagine that the innermost planet has life on it. The temperature should be correct for our definition of what life can tolerate. What would beings on this planet look like? The gravitational pull is much greater on a larger planet; would that make lifeforms larger and denser? If there wasn't an Earth-like environment, would an entirely different set of chemical and metabolic reactions cause life to evolve in a very different way, like breathing helium or drinking sulfuric acid? The possibilities are endless, but one thing is certain (we think): you need planets to have life, and this system bears a striking resemblance to our own.