NASA turns to Hollywood to explain new find

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Science fiction became science fact yesterday as NASA announced its discovery of the first known circumbinary planet – that is, a planet which orbits not one, but two stars. Up until now, circumbinary planets had been the stuff of fantasy. In 1977, George Lucas’s Star Wars famously depicted two suns in the sky of Tatooine – the home planet of Luke Skywalker. It was fitting, then, that joining the panel of NASA scientists that made yesterday’s historic announcement was none other than John Knoll – a renowned visual effects supervisor with Lucas’s effects company Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Knoll worked on five out of the six Star Wars movies, as well as on other alien-themed productions, including The Abyss (1989), Star Trek: First Contact (1996), and Avatar (2009).

NASA’s decision to include Knoll on yesterday’s press briefing panel may seem rather odd, but in fact it was a savvy PR move on the space agency’s part. NASA clearly recognises that, for the scientific layperson (i.e. the majority of the populace), the visual characteristics and cosmic significance of this most recent extra-planetary discovery are most effectively crystallised through the use of iconographic Hollywood imagery and narrative devices. Several times throughout the press conference, NASA scientists used Star Wars as a natural reference point by which to clearly convey the complex notion of a circumbinary system, even screening a clip of the movie for good measure.

Following the formal briefing session, the question was raised by an audience member whether or not the public might be allowed to choose a less clinical name for the new planet than its official designation of “Kepler 16-b” and asked if the panel had yet considered any alternatives. The scientists – bless their logical hearts – seemed somewhat bemused, as if they were struggling even to grasp the premise of the question. Luckily, ILMs’s John Knoll was standing-by with the perfect answer: “Tatooine!” Well, naturally. And see if that name doesn’t stick.