Weird Planets‏

[Dingo]

NASA Science News for Sept. 12, 2012
Once, astronomers thought planets couldn't form around binary stars. Now Kepler has found a whole system of planets orbiting a double star. This finding shows that planetary systems are weirder and more abundant than previously thought.

FULL STORY: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/12sep_weirdplanets/

VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl5EknhEsSQ

[Mysteron347]

Can't really see much support for the "weird" claim.

If we look at our own solar system, it's theorised that Jupiter simply doesn't have quite enough mass to become a star. In such binary systems, all you need is for one or more "planets" to have enough mass to become stars in their own right, and the entire system would rotate about its centre of mass - same as any solar system, just some planets are stars... There doesn't appear to be any reason to assume that a star has to reside at the centre of mass, just that's the familiar scenario...