Two massive Jupiter-like planets were recently discovered orbiting around two extremely close sister stars."
"The alien planets were found to orbit around the binary star system NN Serpentis, which is located about 1,670 light-years from Earth."
To read more about this discovery please click on the following link:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39868777/ns/technology_and_science-space/
NN Serpentis (abbreviated NN Ser) is an eclipsing binary system approximately 1670 light-years away. "A binary star is a star system consisting of two stars orbiting around their common center of mass. The brighter star is called the primary and the other is its companion star, comes, or secondary. Research between the early 19th century and today suggests that many stars are part of either binary star systems or star systems with more than two stars, called multiple star systems."
"Binary star systems are very important in astrophysics because calculations of their orbits allow the masses of their component stars to be directly determined, which in turn allows other stellar parameters, such as radius and density, to be indirectly estimated. This also determines an empirical mass-luminosity relationship (MLR) from which the masses of single stars can be estimated."
The term binary was first used in this context by Sir William Herschel in 1802, when he wrote:
"If, on the contrary, two stars should really be situated very near each other, and at the same time so far insulated as not to be materially affected by the attractions of neighbouring stars, they will then compose a separate system, and remain united by the bond of their own mutual gravitation towards each other. This should be called a real double star; and any two stars that are thus mutually connected, form the binary sidereal system which we are now to consider."
"By the modern definition, the term binary star is generally restricted to pairs of stars which revolve around a common centre of mass.It is estimated that approximately 1/3 of the star systems in the Milky Way are binary or multiple, with the remaining 2/3 consisting of single stars."
"Science fiction has often featured planets of binary or ternary stars as a setting, for example George Lucas' Tatooine from Star Wars."
source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_star
The closest star system, to the Earth, Alpha Centauri, is a binary star system, consisting of two closely orbiting Sun-sized stars orbited in turn by a red dwarf. The two center stars have an elliptical orbit around each (source:http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-binary-star-system.htm )
Image above: A rendering of NN Serpentis system Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:NN_Serpentis_binary.png
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