Remember the planet Tatooine from "Star Wars" that has two suns? Planets revolving around two suns may actually have higher chances of hosting life forms, according to a new research.
According to the study, the dual sun setup of these systems gives such alien planets a bigger Goldilocks Zone. Joni Clark from the New Mexico State University and Paul Mason, an astrophysicist, concluded that two stars around 80 percent as massive as our sun, given an ideal distance between them, may be ideal to make planets around them habitable.
"[The stars] calm each other down. It's like a really good marriage. They vent to each other, and they're not focused on anything else. They slow each other down and that causes increased magnetic protection of the planets," explained Clark when interviewed by Space.
"It also leaves the potential open for smaller planets that have less magnetic field protection to remain habitable because in a sense they don't have to protect themselves from as much as they would in a single star case," Clark added.
In such binary star systems, the planets are not only the one revolving around the suns. The stars are also revolving one another but do not drift apart because if that happens, their gravitational pull on the planets will also be affected.
If planets revolve only the secondary star in a twin-star setup, it may be subjected to solar aggression that will not make life possible. Conversely, planets that go around the two stars may have an easier time. The scientists however noted that it is a case to case basis and such setup does not always create an oasis.
Clark also assumes that planets in such systems that have a lesser magnetic field may still be viable for life since the planets are not too prone to solar assaults.
"Other groups have recently shown that planets close to stars of any type suffer water loss, like Venus, and atmosphere erosion, mostly early in the star's life. These effects may occur even for planets with magnetic field protection. The beauty of close binaries is that their habitable zones are located farther out," Mason revealed in an earlier interview.
Scientists trying to explore the rest of the universe for binary systems cannot just rely on telescope imaging but have to depend on tools like the Kepler Space Telescope to locate distant twin suns and rocky planets.
