Could alien planets have two suns?

Yes. Alien planets can have two suns. In astronomy, these are called circumbinary planets if they orbit both stars together, or they can orbit one star in a binary star system while the second star appears as a bright companion in the sky.

This is not just science fiction: astronomers have confirmed several planets in systems with two stars, using space telescopes such as Kepler and TESS. A well-known example is Kepler-16b, the first confirmed circumbinary planet, and another is TOI-1338 b, which was discovered by TESS in 2020.

How it works:

1. Circumbinary orbit (P-type): the planet orbits around both stars, which stay relatively close together. To someone on the planet, the two suns would usually appear close in the sky.
2. S-type orbit: the planet orbits one star, while the second star is much farther away. In that case, the second sun would look like a very bright star in the sky.

Could they support life? Possibly, in principle. If a planet orbits in the right region where liquid water could exist, life is not ruled out. But the climate and radiation environment can be more complicated than on a planet with one sun.

Because these systems are very far away, exact details can be hard to measure, and whether any such planet actually supports life remains unknown.