Lego has just released some official photos of its upcoming Tatooine Mini-build playset. And like the Lego SHIELD Helicarrier, the miniature 178-piece set includes microfigure versions of Luke Skywalker, C3PO, R2-D2, and a pair of Jawas—just look at how adorably tiny they are.
For decades, astronomers have assumed that Earth-like planets cannot form around binary stars on account of wacky gravitational effects. Which, for Star Wars fans, was a total downer. But a new study suggests that not only is the formation of Tatooine-like planets very much possible, they may actually be quite common.
Over the past several years, astronomers have discovered a number of planets within so-called circumbinary systems, including Kepler-34(AB)b — a planet reminiscent of Star Wars' Tatooine. Now, using computer models, scientists have finally figured out how these planets can form in such gravitationally hostile…
French astronomers think they found Tatooine in real life and we didn't even have to travel to a galaxy far, far away (well, it's still kind of far). The fictional home of Luke Skywalker is called 2MASS0103(AB)b in real life and it revolves around two suns that move relatively close together. Basically, this planet is…
Star Wars junkie Mark Dermul has a pretty sweet job: He leads tours in North Africa of different locations featured in the films. On a 2010 trip to Tunisia—er, Tatooine—he and his cohort realized that Luke Skywalker's boyhood home—the Lars Homestead—was in serious disrepair. NPR reports how they brought it back to…
Mos Eisley becomes the nexus of all science fiction realities in this giant print from artist Ulises Farinas. How many out-of-place characters can you find?
Die hard Star Wars fan might know this already but for the rest, here's your next vacation: Tunisia. Four of the Star Wars filmed in Tunisia (as the planet Tatooine) and most of the buildings are still in good shape, which means you can visit it. It's Star Wars, but instead of being a galaxy far, far away, it's on…
Astronomers have found two more new planets orbiting binary stars: Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b. Their discovery, which follow the original Tatooine discovery back in September 2011, is quite important: now we know there are millions of planets orbiting binary stars.
have confirmed what it seemed inevitable: a planet orbiting a binary star. It's no Tatooine but a Saturn-sized gas planet twisting around two stars about 1.5 and 4.5 smaller than our Sun.
Say you're on Mustafar and need to swing by Endor to pick up an illicit shipment of Ewok chitterlings. Where do you go? This map from Star Wars: The Essential Atlas will show the way. [Entertainment Weekly, thanks Ryernl!]
Dar Hi, an eco spa opening in the Tunisian village of Nefta, looks kind of like Luke Skywalker's Uncle's place after an extreme home makeover. Which is fitting, because its just a short walk from where George Lucas filmed Tatooine.
Chott El Jerid is a salt-encrusted seasonal lake in southwestern Tunisia. The Europlanet project, a consortium of universities devoted to finding earthly environment similar to other planets and moons, has designated the area an earthbound Mars.
The Buenos Aires government would have done the late Owen Lars proud with their newly installed $5 million Intelligent Monitoring Towers. Designed to collect information about the city's air and noise quality, we can easily see these 42 towers being at home collecting moisture on a dusty planet in a certain binary…
Luke Skywalker's home planet, which orbits a binary star system, could be out there, according to Ryosuke Kita of Northwestern University, who presented this morning at the Astrobiology Science Conference 2008. Of the 200 or so star systems where we've found planets, about 20 percent are binary systems, and that…
