27 Tatooines: Astronomers spot new worlds with double suns in our own galaxy
Luke Skywalker’s home planet may be fictional, but Earth's scientists recently identified several planets in the Milky Way galaxy with Tatooine-like sunsets.
By Serrae Bell
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Scientists recently discovered 27 Tatooine-like planets in the Milky Way galaxy.
EARTH, Laniakea Supercluster—A short time ago in a galaxy close, close by (the Milky Way), planets with two suns were discovered, just like Luke Skywalker’s fictional home of Tatooine.
A study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society details the finding of 27 candidate circumbinary planets (CBPs). These are celestial bodies that orbit around not one, but two stars. Fittingly, the study was published on May 4, which just so happens to be Star Wars Day.
The universe works in mysterious ways.
These double-sun planet candidates (candidates because they have yet to be confirmed through additional analysis) were discovered by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS), a telescope launched in 2018 with the goal of discovering worlds outside our solar system, called exoplanets.
Before this discovery, TESS had only found two of the 18 CBPs known to exist. But a team of researchers led by Margo Thornton, a doctoral candidate at the University of New South Wales, applied a relatively new twist on an old method that led to astronomical results: the possibility that, if confirmed, the number of known CBPs could more than double.
The method in question is tracking and observing apsidal precession. To understand what that particular pair of words means, imagine a spirograph.
As it moves in circles it creates one center point, but the location of the outermost point changes with each time around, creating a loop-like pattern. Now imagine that pattern is the orbital path of one star around another. Celestial bodies orbit each other in an ellipse (an oval-like path), which means they aren’t always the same distance away from the center of gravity around which they rotate. This gradual twisting of the orbit is known as apsidal precession.
The evidence of the precession alone had researchers filled with the unbridled exhilaration of a kid uncovering a secret candy stash.
“When the first system I looked at had a clear signal that these stars were precessing, and we were able to rule out all the other causes of it, we were left with these plots and numbers that suggested we might have just found a planet,” said Thornton. "For a little while, we were the only people on Earth who knew about it. It was a very exciting feeling—and it's a great part of working in astronomy.”
The other causes Thornton mentioned for the veering of the star’s orbital path are tidal forces and general relativity. The team then carefully subtracted those known effects and found the remaining precession pointed to the presence of a third body—another celestial object.
Drumroll please…most likely a previously undiscovered planet.
Because there are multiple factors that can create apsidal precession, it isn’t a sure-fire way of finding exoplanets. The more common method is tracking planet transits—the slight dimming of a star’s light each time a planet passes in front of it. Transits provide hard proof of the planet’s existence and can be used to figure out its size and orbital period, but the method is limited.
The study states, “Transit surveys preferentially find planets whose orbits are nearly edge-on and aligned with the binary, because even a degree of mutual inclination dramatically reduces the probability of detecting repeated transits.”
Essentially, the transits wouldn’t be visible if the planet isn’t precisely aligned with its stars or in Earth’s direct line of sight, and without that subtle dip in light, a planet could go unnoticed. So, it’s out with the old, in with the new. Using apsidal precession as a detection tool allows these sneaky planets to be found even if they don’t orbit on the same plane as their star or, in this case, stars.
The discovery of CBPs is a recent development, as the first were only confirmed in the last 15 years or so, meaning the recent change in the application of apsidal precession and the finding of 27 new candidate planets is an encouraging sign for future breakthroughs.
With this knowledge, researchers can learn more about the variety of planets outside our solar system and better understand how they form and change, especially in two-star systems. What’s more, as researchers learn whether any circumbinary planets can host conditions suitable for life, discoveries like this could help inform the search for worlds, and the hunt for evidence that proves we are not alone in the universe.
Thornton said that “there could potentially be thousands, or tens of thousands, of possible planets” that have yet to be found—this is just the first step.
It poses the question: If there is a universe of discoveries to be made in our own celestial backyard, what else might be lying in wait in a galaxy far, far away?
About Serrae Bell
A perpetually curious lover of words who can usually be found reading or wondering about the mysteries of life.
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