SHUSTER: Space, the final frontier. There is a whole genre of movies dedicated to figuring out what exists in the great beyond. But in our number one story on the Countdown, we are much closer to the world of Star Wars moving from science-fiction to reality. And it all happened, literally, in a galaxy not so far away. Scientists have discovered a new planet named Keppler-16b after the Keppler telescope with which it was discovered. The Saturn-sized planet was spotted in the constellation Cygnus. What makes it remarkable is that the planet circles not one, but two stars.
(Excerpt from video clip) NICK GAUTIER: This is the first definitive detection of a circum-binary planet, and is the best example we have of a Tatooine-like world from Star Wars.
SHUSTER: He said Tatooine, Luke's home planet. For those of you who are not Star Wars fans, the reason NASA makes that comparison, is for the famous shot of Luke watching two suns setting. But, perhaps, the conspiracy -- I mean, the comparison -- was made because the new Star Wars Blu-ray box set was released today. I'll report, you decide.
But just know that NASA has found a planet in a two-star system, and that means there is a new spectrum of solar systems that NASA can examine. Instead of focusing on a single-star solar system similar to ours, scientists can search for new planets and systems containing two or three stars, the kind that seem to make up most of the galaxy. Let's bring in Derrick Pitts, chief astronomer of The Franklin Institute and a Countdown contributor. He also tweets under the alias coolastronomer. And Derrick, if there's anyone that deserves that twitter name, it is you. Thanks for being with us tonight.
DERRICK PITTS: Thank you very much, Dave.
SHUSTER: So, NASA discovers a planet that resembles a pretty major planet in the movie Star Wars, and they go public with the discovery a day before Star Wars comes out on Blu-ray? How much money is George Lucas paying NASA?
PITTS: I hope it's enough to foot the bill for the next launch vehicle we're going to need to get people out there to reach it.
SHUSTER: Turning away from the conspiracy theory, which I think I'm going to hold onto, how does a planet form with two stars? I thought that was impossible.
PITTS: So, this is one of the great things about this particular discovery, is that, you know, and it was thought before that the physics involved in a two-star system, and the title forces involved in a two-star system like this really wouldn't make it possible for planets to form. So, what we're finding here again is that nature can do things out in the universe that we would not suppose could be done in an environment like Earth, or even close to what we suspect. So, we're finding that it is possible. Now, it -- there's so many possibilities for what could have happened to create this, but it's great to find one. Now, we go look for more, create some mathematical models, and then see if we can put something together that will simulate what we see.
SHUSTER: And time the announcements out with future Spielberg movies going on Blu-ray. But this is just the latest in a long list of recent planet discoveries. Did we just start looking for planets, or have our techniques just become so much better?
PITTS: Well, actually, you know, this has been the hot thing for astronomers to do for about the last decade. You know, discover planets orbiting other stars. And it really goes with a couple of things, David. It goes with -- the first piece it goes with is that we now have this capability that allows us to do these very, very fine measurements at tremendous distances, and we start to pick up these details about what's actually happening orbiting these other stars. But then, there's also the ingenuity of the astronomers themselves that managed to be able to put the puzzle pieces together in a way to make it possible for us to understand that these things now do exist, that we find these other planets somewhere else around the universe. And, of course, it's all topped off by our desire to find some other form of life somewhere else out there.
SHUSTER: Derrick, since Star Wars kind of predicted the idea of a planet with two suns, should we be looking into, I don't know, other ideas from the movies? Traveling at light speed? Blowing up a planet? Maybe even Wookiees.
PITTS: Well, you know, actually, Dave, there's a sort of -- there's a really interesting give and take, or back and forth if you will, between the reality of the -- you know, the universe we live in, of science, and science-fiction also. Because, what happens is often some ideas come from science-fiction, and end up then manifesting themselves in the real world of science and then occasionally, stuff in the real world of science ends up in science-fiction somehow. So, there has always been a tradeoff back and forth.
SHUSTER: So, if I don't know -- if -- if astronomers or NASA discovers that there's this gigantic meteor which is headed towards earth, should they wait until Deep Impact is released on Blu-ray? I mean, what do you make of the timing?
PITTS: I think it's really wonderful, and I think one of the great things it does is it ties together this great cultural icon, if you will, of the Star Wars franchise with real science. And it makes people sort of pay attention and hold onto it longer because of its cultural significance -- that is of the Star Wars franchise. So, when you put the science together with the story, it makes it something -- like a vehicle for people to grab on to.
SHUSTER: Finally, and perhaps the question that could get you into a lot of trouble within the scientific community -- Star Trek or Star Wars, and why?
PITTS: Oh, Star Trek, all the way. I like Star Wars, it looks really good on a big screen, but Star Trek covered so many great ideas, and through the different phases of the franchise, really advanced so much more than I think Star Wars did, except for the last Star Trek movie, which I really did like.
SHUSTER: So, um -- I think that's Steven Spielberg that's calling on line one for you, Derrick Pitts. What should we look for as far as the next -- the big discovery, though? What's out there that is going to be timed out for the next big announcement?
PITTS: The next big things that are coming along is to try to figure out something about what's going on with dark matter and dark energy. These are the two big forces of the universe now that seem to dominate everything in the universe. Everything we know of its matter is just 4 percent of everything that's out there, you know, this existence that we have here, the reality we have. But, there's that, and there's also the hunt for life somewhere in our solar system either on Mars or one of the moons of Saturn--
SHUSTER: And, Derrick, NASA's telling me now we got to cut you off now that you've gone into that topic -- the hunt for other life.
PITTS: Thank you.
SHUSTER: Derrick Pitts, thanks as always. We appreciate it. That's it for this edition of Countdown.
I'm David Shuster. Have a great weekend, everybody.
