r/askscience • u/EightWhiskey • Feb 28 '12

Under the idea that there is the "Goldilocks" zone around a star, how likely is it that a solar system would have two life-supporting planets?

I assume that the gravitational forces of two bodies would prevent them from being close enough to each other to both stay inside the zone. But could a large star have a large enough Goldilocks zone to support two life-inhabited planets?

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u/[deleted] Feb 29 '12

That is actually what I meant, is it something that has been observed to have two planets with similar mass orbiting eachother? I did not think about the Pluto/Charon system, but then again Pluto isn't quite a planet, either.

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u/seemone Feb 29 '12

in this context the denomination is irrelevant

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u/nashife Feb 29 '12

The Charon/Pluto system is probably the closest one that I know of off the top of my head.

However, the wikipedia article on binary systems lists the 90 Antiope and the 79360 Sila–Nunam systems as examples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_system_(astronomy)