Planetary systems can be harsh environments in their early history. The young worlds orbit suns in stellar nurseries, clusters of stars where violent encounters are commonplace. None of this makes it ...

Binary (or double) stars may in fact hinder life as we know it, new observations by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, reveal. Details of the millimeter ...

Planetary systems around stars the size of our sun are obvious targets for astronomers trying to locate extraterrestrial life forms, and nearly every second star in that category is a binary star. New ...

SEATTLE — Luke Skywalker’s home planet in Star Wars is the stuff of science fiction. But Tatooine-like planets in orbit around pairs of stars might be our best bet in the search for habitable planets ...

Because Earth is the only planet known to host life as we know it, researchers have usually focused on planetary systems similar to our own when searching for extraterrestrial life. But new research ...