In studies looking for dusty disks-where planet formation is likely-around binary stars, such disks were found in wide or narrow binaries, or those whose stars are more than 50 or less than 3 AU apart, respectively. Exoplanet researchers' simulations indicate that planets form frequently around close binaries, though gravitational effects from the dual star system tend to make them very difficult to find with current Doppler and transit methods of planetary searches. The first observationally confirmed binary - Kepler-16b - is a close binary. Tatooine appears to be of the other type - a "close" binary, where the stars are very close, and the planets orbit their common center of mass. Specifically, they orbit what are known as "wide" binary star systems where the two stars are fairly far apart (several AU). Of the 3457 exoplanets currently known, 146 actually orbit binary star systems (and 39 orbit multiple star systems with three or more stars). However, recent simulations indicate that planets are just as likely to form around binary star systems as single-star systems. In the past, scientists thought that planets would be unlikely to form around binary stars. A NASA depiction of a theoretical viewpoint from Kepler-16b's orbit of its two suns
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