It's one of the most instantly recognizable scenes in cinematic history: Luke Skywalker gazes at a double sunset to the haunting melody of a mournful French horn. And while "Star Wars" may take place in a galaxy far, far away, planets orbiting binary stars actually do exist in the Milky Way. Yet mysteriously, there are not as many as scientists expect — and new research might explain why.
Of the thousands of single-star systems in our galaxy, around 10% are known to have planets. Scientists thus expected about 10% of the 3,000 known binary star systems in our galaxy to have them, too. But of the more than 6,000 confirmed exoplanets in the Milky Way, just 14 confirmed planets have been found around pairs of stars.
