Is it possible for a binary star system to have planets orbiting.?

Question

And if so could any support any kind of life.

Answer 1

Binary systems can and do have planets orbiting (25% of all known extra solar planetary systems are around binary or multiple star systems). Some systems in which the stars are close to eachither have the planets orbiting both stars, some systems have planets orbiting only one star in the system. Many planets in binary systems have highly eccentric orbits (like comets), are widley seperated from the star (600-2500 AU, the habitable zone around solar type stars is 3 AU).
Habitability depends on so many things that it's really hard to say for sure if any exist but it is certainly possible.

Answer 2

Yes, that is indeed the case when you have two stars in contact or nearly so. Stars such as ER Vulpeculae or W Ursae Majoris fall into this category. In double star systems where the members are farther apart, a planet can exist in a stable orbit around one of the stars without interference from the other. Planets have been found in wide double stars already. Although I do not know of any circling a close or contact binary star, it's certainly possible for a planet to circle both stars in a distant orbit. We just haven't been looking long enough to find planets in 20 or 30 year orbits yet.

Answer 3

Yes it is possible for a binary star system to have planets orbiting it. They would have to be sufficient distance from the stars that one of the stars didnt exert too much gravity on them.

In a case where planets orbited the system, the gravity from the stars would appear to come from a point in between the stars (the center of mass for the binary star pair), and the planets would behave accordingly. Binary stars tend to orbit one another, so that's probably going to cause the planets orbits to be unusual.

Could they support life? It depends on a whole lot more than the stars they orbit. If everything else were in place, it is possible for a binary star system to support life. But thats alot of things that need to happen

Answer 4

A planetary system in a binary stellar system is possible in one of two ways: The stars comprising the binary are at a very large distance from each other, although still gravitationally bound, with planets orbiting one or both of them at distances so as not to cause them to be pulled out of orbit by their sun's companion.

Or, planets could CONCEIVABLY form at such a distance from the stellar pair that they would actually orbit the center of gravity of the binary system itself.

Your guess is as good as mine as to their ability to support life, although I intuitively feel that this would be a possibility in the first case, and not in the second.

Answer 5

It's possible, but much less likely than for a single star, because the presence of a second star is more likely to perturb the orbit, making it unstable in the long term.

There are two scenarios in which a planetary orbit is stable (long-term) in a binary system: first, if the two stars are closely spaced, and the planet is distant, orbiting the suns' barycenter; and second, if the two stars are distant, and the planet obits one of the two stars so closely that the pertubation of the second star is insignificant.

In both of these scenarios, life-as-we-know-it is unlikely to evolve.

Answer 6

If the binaries have sufficient separation, yes. Planets could have a stable Earth-like orbit, and the other star would be distant enough to just be a bright star.

Answer 7

I believe there is at least one binary star known to have planets.

Answer 8

Can you imagine the planet doing a figure of eight between them, think of the sunrises and sunsets, two a day or would you have day A and day B

Answer 9

No...;