Planets may actually form more easily around double stars than around single stars like our sun, according to new research from astrophysicists at the University of Lancashire. Binary stars are common in our galaxy, yet for a long time astronomers believed that the gravitational tug-of-war between two stars would make it harder for circumbinary planets, worlds that orbit both stars, to form. Famous fictional worlds such as Tatooine from Star Wars, with its iconic twin sunsets, were thought to be cosmic curiosities rather than something nature routinely produces.
Perhaps having a larger mass companion is needed for that initial formation, and we happened to have one, just not stellar. One early solar system theory involves both Jupiter and Saturn far closer in, and Saturn was the one closer to the Sun, and the disruptive force that scattered things out more, perhaps even caused a breakup of one forming planet that is now the asteroid belt.