First making headlines over a decade ago, Kepler-16b is essentially a circumbinary exoplanet, or one that orbits two stars, located 200 light-years from Earth. It’s similar to Star Wars’ Tatooine in that it orbits two stars, but this planet is cold, gaseous and most likely does not harbor life. Kepler-16b was detected in the Kepler-16 system, a pair of orbiting stars that eclipse each other from our viewpoint on Earth.
When the smaller star partially blocks the larger star, it results in a primary eclipse. This confirms that the exoplanet is an inhospitable, cold world about the size of Saturn, comprised of about half rock and half gas. However, the parent stars are smaller than our sun, with one having 69% the mass and the other just 20%. Kepler-16b completes an orbit around both stars every 229 days, similar to Venus’ 225-day orbit, but is located outside the system’s habitable zone, where liquid water could exist on the surface due to the stars being cooler than our sun.
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This discovery confirms a new class of planetary systems that could harbor life. Given that most stars in our galaxy are part of a binary system, this means the opportunities for life are much broader than if planets form only around single stars. This milestone discovery confirms a theory that scientists have had for decades but could not prove until now,” said William Borucki, Kepler principal investigator.
