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Narrator: NASA's Kepler Mission has discovered
the first system of multiple planets orbiting
a pair of stars, or as astronomers call it,
a circumbinary system.
Located in the constellation of Cygnus,
about 4,900 light-years from Earth,
the discovery of Kepler-47 proves
that more than one planet can form and persist
while orbiting two stars.
One star is similar to the sun in size
but only 84 percent as bright.
The second star is only one-third the size of the sun
and less than one percent as bright.
The inner planet, Kepler-47b, is the smallest known
in orbit around two stars.
The outer planet, Kepler-47c, is a gaseous giant,
more than four times the size of Earth.
Astrophysicists believe it might have an atmosphere
blanketed with thick bright water clouds.
It orbits its host stars every 303 days,
placing it in the so-called "habitable zone."
This is the region in a planetary system
where liquid water could exist on the surface
of an orbiting planet.
While not a world thought to be hospitable for life,
Kepler-47c is the first known circumbinary planet
found in the habitable zone of its stars
and it demonstrates the diversity
of planetary systems in our galaxy.
This discovery represents an important step
for the Kepler mission in the effort to find Earth-size planets
in the habitable zone of their host stars.
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