{"id":17850,"date":"2019-12-19T21:37:49","date_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:37:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/not-so-far-far-away-how-the-star-wars-galaxy-falls-short-of-the-real-life-search-for-planets\/"},"modified":"2019-12-19T21:37:49","modified_gmt":"2019-12-19T13:37:49","slug":"not-so-far-far-away-how-the-star-wars-galaxy-falls-short-of-the-real-life-search-for-planets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/not-so-far-far-away-how-the-star-wars-galaxy-falls-short-of-the-real-life-search-for-planets\/","title":{"rendered":"Not so far, far away: How the Star Wars galaxy falls short of the real-life search for planets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Luke
Luke Skywalker\u2019s home planet, Tatooine, and its two suns are a good example of science echoing Star Wars. Or is it the other way around? (Lucasfilm Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past 42 years, filmgoers have seen exotic worlds come to life in a succession of Star Wars movies \u2014 a series that is now coming to a climax with \u201cStar Wars: Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker.\u201d But are those exoplanets really all that exotic anymore?<\/p>\n

Sure, we\u2019ve seen two suns in the sky over the sands of Tatooine, Luke Skywalker\u2019s home planet. We\u2019ve been to an ice planet (Hoth) and a lava planet (Mustafar). We\u2019ve even spent time on a habitable exomoon that\u2019s in orbit around a gas giant (Endor).<\/p>\n

Back in 1977, most of us might have thought those types of worlds to be science-fiction fantastical. Today, they\u2019re seen as totally plausible categories in the study of thousands of planets beyond our solar system. And Rory Barnes, a University of Washington astronomer who focuses on astrobiology and the habitability of exoplanets, suspects Star Wars creator George Lucas knew this could happen.<\/p>\n

Barnes points to a book called \u201cHabitable Planets for Man,\u201d which was written for the Rand Corp. in 1964 (and is freely available on the Web).<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s stuff in there about circumbinary planets, something like Tatooine, and about exomoons,\u201d Barnes told me. \u201cIt was only seven or eight years before George Lucas started writing Star Wars \u2026 so I suspect that he was at least aware of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Rory Barnes is an assistant professor in the University of Washington\u2019s Department of Astronomy and Astrobiology Program. He\u2019s also a member of NASA\u2019s Virtual Planetary Laboratory and UW\u2019s Big Data program. He studies the habitability of exoplanets with astrophysical, geophysical and atmospheric computer models. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even the fact that Lucas missed out on what\u2019s now thought to be the biggest category of real-life planets \u2014 the ones that orbit red dwarf stars \u2014 serves as evidence for Barnes\u2019 case.<\/p>\n

The 1964 book discounted the idea that red-dwarf planets would be habitable, because of an undesirable tidal-lock effect in their orbits. Today, planetary scientists are warming up to the idea of habitable red-dwarf planets, but the only clear references to such worlds in the Star Wars canon are found in offshoots of the central nine-movie Skywalker series.<\/p>\n

When Disney\u2019s producers, writers and directors put together their post-Skywalker Star Wars movies, maybe they should work some red-dwarf planets into the plots.<\/p>\n

To prime the pump for a look back at four decades of Star Wars planetary science, Barnes and I attended an advance screening of \u201cThe Rise of Skywalker\u201d earlier this week \u2014 and then sat down for a Q&A in a nearby cafe. You\u2019ll shouldn\u2019t find any plot spoilers in the following transcript, which has been edited for brevity and clarity. But if you\u2019re dead-set against reading anything about the movie, stop here and check back when you return from the theater.<\/p>\n