WASHINGTON: In one of the most iconic scenes from the 1977 classic film Star Wars, the young hero Luke Skywalker gazes wistfully at two suns setting on the horizon of his desolate home planet, Tatooine. This memorable imagery has captured the imagination of audiences for decades. However, it has also sparked curiosity among astronomers who have since unearthed the existence of real celestial bodies known as circumbinary planets, which orbit two stars.

In a groundbreaking discovery that adds a layer of exoticism to our understanding of planetary systems, researchers have identified a circumbinary planet that does not orbit two conventional stars, but rather two brown dwarfs. These brown dwarfs, which are celestial objects that are too massive to be classified as planets yet do not possess enough mass to ignite nuclear fusion like true stars, present a fascinating case study in the field of astronomy. They occupy a unique space on the stellar spectrum, being more substantial than the largest planets yet significantly less luminous than full-fledged stars.

Using the advanced capabilities of the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope located in Chile, scientists have gathered compelling evidence of this extraordinary planet, situated approximately 120 light-years away from Earth. Preliminary assessments suggest that this newly discovered planet, designated as 2M1510 (AB) b, is likely a gas giant, boasting a mass estimated to be at least four to five times that of our home planet, Earth. To put this distance into perspective, a light-year, the standard unit for measuring astronomical distances, is equivalent to 9.5 trillion kilometers. For reference, Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, serves as a benchmark for understanding the scale of these massive celestial bodies.

The two brown dwarfs at the center of this discovery are gravitationally bound to each other and orbit in close proximityat just about 4% of the distance between Earth and the Sun. Meanwhile, the planet 2M1510 (AB) b makes its journey around this pair of brown dwarfs. Interestingly, there exists another brown dwarf within this system; however, its distance from the main two is so vastapproximately 250 times that of the distance between the Earth and the Sunthat its gravitational influence on the other two is negligible.

Among the 5,800 exoplanets that have been confirmed to date, only 16 are known to be circumbinary. Notably, this discovery marks the first instance of such a planet being found orbiting brown dwarfs, as previous examples have solely involved standard stars.

The orbital mechanics of 2M1510 (AB) b also reveal a unique feature: unlike any known planetary orbit in our solar system, this planet follows a nearly perpendicular pathknown as a polar orbitrelative to the orbital plane established by the two brown dwarfs. This distinctive trajectory means that the planet completes one full revolution around the brown dwarfs in at least 100 days. To provide context, Thomas Baycroft, a doctoral student in astronomy at the University of Birmingham in England and the lead author of the study published in the journal Science Advances, compared this polar orbit to a satellite's path around Earth, which passes over both the North and South Poles.

In our solar system, no planet exhibits a polar orbit, and the limited number of exoplanets that have been recorded in such an orbit typically revolve around a single star rather than a binary system as is the case here. This configuration raises intriguing questions about the diversity and complexity of planetary systems across the universe.

Observing the celestial dance of the two brown dwarfs from the perspective of 2M1510 (AB) b would present a starkly different view than that famously depicted in Star Wars. In this scenario, both brown dwarfs would appear as identical red objects in the sky. Although they are fainter than our Sun, their apparent brightness would depend on the proximity of the planet to them, making this an interesting visual phenomenon.

According to Baycroft, the brown dwarfs each possess a mass approximately 4% that of the Sun and are only about 0.1% as luminous. This configuration lends itself to the characterization of the entire system as an exotic arrangement. Amaury Triaud, an astrophysicist at the University of Birmingham and a co-author of the study, expressed excitement about this discovery, stating, This appears like an exotic configuration for a planetary system. The most significant finding since the first exoplanet is the realization of how diverse planetary systems can be. They seem to defy our expectations, which presents a fantastic opportunity for learning.

This landmark discovery not only bolsters our understanding of circumbinary planets but also provides compelling evidence supporting previous hypotheses regarding the existence of planets in polar orbits around binary systems, a concept that had remained largely theoretical until now.