Astronomy queston?

Question

why can't there be planets around double stars

Answer 1

Who says there can't be?  The planets are going to revolve around the center of gravity somewhere between the 2 stars.

Answer 2

There are.  16 Cygni B (part of a triple star system) has a planet orbiting it and 55 Cancri A (a binary system) has five planets orbiting it.

Answer 3

There could be --- it depends on how far apart the double stars are from each other -- a stable orbit can be achieved around many double stars..... allowing planets to form.

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/ask_as...

Answer 4

There are. And double stars are called binary star systems.

Answer 5

Astronomers know that planets can form around double stars. Some form around just one of the stars in the pair if the two stars are far away from each other, lying at least 1000 astronomical units apart (1 AU is the distance between the Sun and the Earth). About 50 of the 200 known planets outside our solar system orbit one of the stars in a widely separated binary pair