Astronomers recently detected a Tatooine star system, similar to Luke Skywalker's home planet consisting of a gigantic exoplanet orbiting two stars. This planet known as Kepler-1647b which is also the largest planet ever discovered that is orbiting two suns that is classified as a circumbinary exoplanet.

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Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and San Diego State University announced yesterday this milestone discovery at the American Astronomical Society in San Diego, for their annual meeting.

Astronomers used a special technique with this telescope, where they search for dips in brightness that would indicate that a planet might be transiting in front of its star, which can block the light travelling from the star towards the direction of Earth.

According to co-author of the study, astronomer William Welsh from the San Diego State University, circumbinary planets are very difficult to find as opposed to searching for planets orbiting around single stars. Welsh says that these transits are also not regularly spaced in time, resulting in varying duration and depth.

Apart from this, researchers conducted crowd sourcing to also confirm the planet's existence with the use of a global network of professional and amateur astronomers.

Kepler-1647b can complete one orbit in a period of three years, where astronomers suggest that it is located in the habitable zone of its star system but is not a rocky planet like Earth but more of a gas planet similar to Jupiter and highly unlikely to host life.

This giant gas planet is located at a distance of 3,700 light years away from our solar system and is estimated at 4.4 billion years old, about the same age of Earth. It is also located in the Cygnus constellation but powerful telescopes are required in order to see it.

This new discovery will be published in the Astrophysical Journal. 

Tagstatooine planet, jupiter like planet, planet orbiting two stars, planet orbiting two suns, Exoplanets