{"622983":{"#nid":"622983","#data":{"type":"external_news","title":"Planets in multiple-star systems may be habitable","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EIn a finding that\u0026rsquo;s great news for fans of Luke Skywalker\u0026rsquo;s fictional home planet Tatooine, scientists say planets in multiple-star systems may be habitable \u0026ndash; though in keeping with Tatooine\u0026rsquo;s hardscrabble image, it may be an uphill battle. Astronomers have long known that multiple-star systems are common. \u0026ldquo;Most stars are members of binaries [other than the coolest dwarf stars],\u0026rdquo; Manfred Cuntz, an astrophysicist at the University of Texas at Arlington. And, as astronomers are learning, many of these binary-star systems have planets \u0026ndash; some circling a single star, and some circling both at once. Life on these planets could have a hard go of it, however. In binary star systems, this effect can be radically stronger, says \u003Cstrong\u003EBilly Quarles\u003C\/strong\u003E, a research scientist in the School of Physics at the Georgia Institute of Technology, especially if the planet\u0026rsquo;s orbit doesn\u0026rsquo;t lie in the same plane as its stars\u0026rsquo; orbits around each other. \u0026ldquo;Seasons around these binaries may be a lot more variable than on Earth,\u0026rdquo; he says. \u0026ldquo;There are times when there are no seasons, and others when seasons [are larger], on a time scale of a few tens of thousands of years.\u0026rdquo;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":"","uid":"34626","created_gmt":"2019-07-03 13:56:01","changed_gmt":"2019-07-03 15:51:57","author":"ybassil3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","publication":"undergraduate leadership","field_article_url":"","publication_url":"https:\/\/cosmosmagazine.com\/space\/planets-in-multiple-star-systems-may-be-habitable","dateline":{"date":"2019-06-26T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2019-06-26T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"622984":{"id":"622984","type":"image","title":"Billy Quarles","body":null,"created":"1562162281","gmt_created":"2019-07-03 13:58:01","changed":"1562162281","gmt_changed":"2019-07-03 13:58:01","alt":"","file":{"fid":"237245","name":"BillyQuarles.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BillyQuarles.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/BillyQuarles.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":93382,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/BillyQuarles.jpg?itok=_Lmd1vov"}}},"media_ids":["622984"],"groups":[{"id":"1278","name":"College of Sciences"},{"id":"126011","name":"School of Physics"}],"categories":[{"id":"150","name":"Physics and Physical Sciences"}],"keywords":[{"id":"181631","name":"Billy Quarles"},{"id":"4079","name":"astrophysics"},{"id":"960","name":"physics"},{"id":"4188","name":"astronomy"},{"id":"181632","name":"multiple-star systems"},{"id":"173919","name":"planets"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}