MIT News: Extremely Precise Radio Waves Using Negative Refraction Through Metamaterial Lens

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- In many respects, metamaterials are supernatural. These manmade materials, with their intricately designed structures, bend electromagnetic waves in ways that are impossible for materials found in nature. Scientists are investigating metamaterials for their potential to engineer invisibility cloaks — materials that refract light to hide an object in plain sight — and “super lenses,” which focus light beyond the range of optical microscopes to image objects at nanoscale detail.

Binary Star System Kepler 47 Found To Be Orbited By Multiple Planets - Shades of Tatooine

Luke Skywalker ponders his future against the backdrop of Tatooine's twin suns (a binary star system).

An iconic shot from the classic sci-fi movie Star Wars, is Luke Skywalker walking on his home planet of Tatooine with its twin suns (Tatoo 1 and Tatoo 2) as its backdrop.

Tatooine is a fictional planet as well as its two suns but it seems that despite the improbability of a planet orbiting a binary star system, they exist.

Not a binary system but a triple-star system was discovered by Maciej Konacki on July 13, 2005. The system is named HD 188753 and can be found in the constellation Cygnus 149 light years away. HD 188753 is the first planet to be seen orbiting a multi star system.

On June 14, 2011, A team led by Dr Stephen Potter and Dr. Encarni Romero-Colmenero found evidence for the existence of a planet orbiting a true binary system (known as UZ For).

Planet Kepler-16b also in the constellation Cygnus was found to be orbiting two stars in a system about 200 light-years away. Kepler-16b circles the two stars at a distance of 65 million miles, while the stars themselves circle each other more closely. This planet has been informally named Tatooine because of its resemblance to the fictional planet.

NASA, Texas astronomers find first multi-planet system around a binary star

NASA's Kepler mission has found the first multi-planet solar system orbiting a binary star, characterized in large part by University of Texas at Austin astronomers using two telescopes at the university's McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The finding, which proves that whole planetary systems can form in a disk around a binary star, is published in the August 28 issue of the journal Science.

"It's Tatooine, right?" said McDonald Observatory astronomer Michael Endl. "But this was not shown in Star Wars," he said, referring to the periodic changes in the amount of daylight falling on a planet with two suns. Measurements of the star's orbits showed that daylight on the planets would vary by a large margin over the 7.4-Earth-day period as the two stars completed their mutual orbits, each moving closer to, then farther from, the planets (which are themselves moving).

The binary star in question is called Kepler-47. The primary star is about the same mass as the Sun, and its companion is an M-dwarf star one-third its size. The inner planet is three times the size of Earth and orbits the binary star every 49.5 days, while the outer planet is 4.6 times the size of Earth with an orbit of 303.2 days.

The outer planet is the first planet found to orbit a binary star within the "habitable zone," where liquid water could exist and thus create a home for life. However, the planet's size (about the same as Uranus) means that it is an icy giant, and not an abode for life. It's a tantalizing taste of discoveries waiting to be made.

Weekend Video. Star Wars Uncut: Episode IV A New Hope - Director's Cut

Star Wars Uncut is a fan made film of the movie. Fans worldwide contributed by reproducing 15 seconds of a scene from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. Casey Pugh and company edited and put all those scenes together to form this movie. It is a bit jarring at the start since the movie changes every 15 seconds. But fans of the Star Wars saga won't mind and even enjoy reliving the movie in a different light.

Watch the complete Star Wars Uncut Film posted below.

The film has gained massive publicity (even winning an Emmy), and positive reviews. The next film, Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, is the next project of the group.

From the website:

Star Wars Uncut is the brainchild of Casey Pugh, a developer dedicated to creating new and fun experiences on the web. In 2009, Casey became interested in using the internet as a tool for crowdsourcing user content.

Star Wars was a natural choice to explore the dynamics of community creation on the web - the response from fans has been overwhelming worldwide and the resulting movie is incredibly fun to watch.

Star Wars Uncut has been featured in documentaries, news features and conferences around the world for its unique appeal - we thank everyone for making it such a special project.

StarWarsUncut.com won a 2010 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media - Fiction.