Astronomers have found thousands of exoplanets around single stars, but few around binary stars—even though both types of stars are equally common. Physicists can now explain the dearth.

General relativity helps explain the lack of planets around tight binary stars by driving orbital resonances that eject or destroy close-in worlds. This process naturally creates a “desert” of ...

Astronomers may finally understand why planets orbiting two suns, the real-world equivalents of the "Star Wars" planet ...

New research suggests Einstein's general relativity explains the rarity of planets orbiting two suns. In tight binary systems ...

How many Earth-sized exoplanets orbit binary star systems (two-star systems)? This is what a recent study accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics hopes to address as an international team of researchers ...

Astronomers have confirmed a giant planet orbiting a tightly bound pair of young stars, marking a first in direct exoplanet imaging. The planet, known as HD 143811 AB b, is the closest-in world ever ...

Why is it so rare to find exoplanets orbiting two stars, also called circumbinary planets (CBPs)? This is what a recent study ...

One such mystery, described in a recent paper in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, concerns circumbinary exoplanets—or rather, the shortage thereof—in the now 6,000+ exoplanets confirmed to date.

Artist’s impression of the nu Octantis system. Image generated by ChatGPT-4.0 and further modified by Trifon TRIFONOV using the GNU Image Manipulation Programme. Most stars in the Universe exist in ...

A team of astronomers observed a confused exoplanet orbiting its two parent stars in a highly unusual way. As New Scientist reports, the planet, which was first discovered in 2004, is located in a ...

An international team of researchers has just revealed the existence of three Earth-sized planets in the binary stellar system TOI-2267 located about 190 light-years away. This discovery, published in ...