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OY true - The Closest Exoplanet Proxima b May Have Neighbors
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a425couple
Nov 7, 2017, 11:11:52 PM11/7/17
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Science & Astronomy
The Closest Exoplanet Proxima b May Have Neighbors
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | November 6, 2017 05:36pm ET
(Perhaps we will just continue to improve our sensing
abilities ((all matter of telescopes etc.)) and never
need to actually send out any probes, or stargliders!)
The nearest alien planet to Earth may not be an only child.
Astronomers have spotted a dusty ring around the nearby star Proxima
Centauri, hinting at the existence of other planets in addition to the
famous Proxima b, a new study reports.
"This result suggests that Proxima Centauri may have a multiple-planet
system with a rich history of interactions that resulted in the
formation of a dust belt," study lead author Guillem Anglada, an
astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Spain, said
in a statement. "Further study may also provide information that might
point to the locations of as-yet unidentified additional planets."
[Proxima b: Closest Earth-Like Planet Discovery in Pictures]
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf that lies about 4.2 light-years from
Earth, in the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). In
2016, researchers spotted Proxima b, an apparently Earth-size world
orbiting the star in what seems to be the habitable zone, the region
where liquid water could exist on the surface. The star itself is about
the same age as the sun. (Coincidentally, the team that discovered
Proxima b was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of Queen Mary University of
London, a part of Anglada's team but no relation to the author of the
new research.)
An artist's impression of the newly detected dusty belts around the
sun's nearest neighbor, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, and its
potentially rocky world.
An artist's impression of the newly detected dusty belts around the
sun's nearest neighbor, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, and its
potentially rocky world.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Anglada and his colleagues studied Proxima Centauri using the Atacama
Large millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a network of telescopes in
Chile. The researchers discovered a belt of dusty material containing
about 1 percent the mass of Earth. The belt — which lies a few hundred
million kilometers from the star, far beyond Proxima b's orbit — has a
temperature of about minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 230 degrees
Celsius), roughly the same temperature of the solar system's Kuiper
Belt, researchers said.
The dusty material might range in size from grains of only a few
millimeters to asteroid-like bodies several kilometers across, study
team members said. Dust belts like this are thought to be the remains of
material that didn’t manage to clump together to form planets, they added.
This image of the sky around the bright binary star Alpha Centauri AB
also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to our own solar system. The photo was created from
pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo
around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process; the
binary is really pale yellow in color, like the sun.
This image of the sky around the bright binary star Alpha Centauri AB
also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to our own solar system. The photo was created from
pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo
around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process; the
binary is really pale yellow in color, like the sun.
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi
Zamani
ALMA also spotted signs of a possible second dust ring, about 10 times
farther from the star than the other one, though this feature awaits
confirmation. If the outer ring does indeed exist, its material would be
very cold, lying so far from a star that is much smaller and dimmer than
the sun.
The faint outer belt could prove useful to astronomers: Studying its
shape could yield a better understanding of Proxima b's mass, which is
not known very well at the moment, the researchers said.
And then there's the exploration angle. The $100 million Breakthrough
Starshot project aims to send sail-equipped, laser-driven microprobes
zooming past Proxima b in the not-too-distant-future, and mapping out
the system's dust environment could be key to the success of such a
mission, study team members said.
"These first results show that ALMA can detect dust structures orbiting
around Proxima. Further observations will give us a more detailed
description of Proxima's planetary system," study co-author Pedro Amado,
also from the Instituto de Astrofiscia de Andaluicia, said in the same
statement. "What we are seeing now is just the appetizer compared to
what is coming!"
The new study has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal
Letters.
Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us
at @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Proxima b: 6 Strange Facts About a Potentially Earth-Like Exoplanet
Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?
10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life
https://www.space.com/38681-proxima-b-alien-planet-possible-neighbors.html
The Closest Exoplanet Proxima b May Have Neighbors
By Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | November 6, 2017 05:36pm ET
(Perhaps we will just continue to improve our sensing
abilities ((all matter of telescopes etc.)) and never
need to actually send out any probes, or stargliders!)
The nearest alien planet to Earth may not be an only child.
Astronomers have spotted a dusty ring around the nearby star Proxima
Centauri, hinting at the existence of other planets in addition to the
famous Proxima b, a new study reports.
"This result suggests that Proxima Centauri may have a multiple-planet
system with a rich history of interactions that resulted in the
formation of a dust belt," study lead author Guillem Anglada, an
astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia in Spain, said
in a statement. "Further study may also provide information that might
point to the locations of as-yet unidentified additional planets."
[Proxima b: Closest Earth-Like Planet Discovery in Pictures]
Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf that lies about 4.2 light-years from
Earth, in the southern constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). In
2016, researchers spotted Proxima b, an apparently Earth-size world
orbiting the star in what seems to be the habitable zone, the region
where liquid water could exist on the surface. The star itself is about
the same age as the sun. (Coincidentally, the team that discovered
Proxima b was led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of Queen Mary University of
London, a part of Anglada's team but no relation to the author of the
new research.)
An artist's impression of the newly detected dusty belts around the
sun's nearest neighbor, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, and its
potentially rocky world.
An artist's impression of the newly detected dusty belts around the
sun's nearest neighbor, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri, and its
potentially rocky world.
Credit: ESO/M. Kornmesser
Anglada and his colleagues studied Proxima Centauri using the Atacama
Large millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), a network of telescopes in
Chile. The researchers discovered a belt of dusty material containing
about 1 percent the mass of Earth. The belt — which lies a few hundred
million kilometers from the star, far beyond Proxima b's orbit — has a
temperature of about minus 328 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 230 degrees
Celsius), roughly the same temperature of the solar system's Kuiper
Belt, researchers said.
The dusty material might range in size from grains of only a few
millimeters to asteroid-like bodies several kilometers across, study
team members said. Dust belts like this are thought to be the remains of
material that didn’t manage to clump together to form planets, they added.
This image of the sky around the bright binary star Alpha Centauri AB
also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to our own solar system. The photo was created from
pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo
around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process; the
binary is really pale yellow in color, like the sun.
This image of the sky around the bright binary star Alpha Centauri AB
also shows the much fainter red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to our own solar system. The photo was created from
pictures forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The blue halo
around Alpha Centauri AB is an artifact of the photographic process; the
binary is really pale yellow in color, like the sun.
Credit: Digitized Sky Survey 2; Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/Mahdi
Zamani
ALMA also spotted signs of a possible second dust ring, about 10 times
farther from the star than the other one, though this feature awaits
confirmation. If the outer ring does indeed exist, its material would be
very cold, lying so far from a star that is much smaller and dimmer than
the sun.
The faint outer belt could prove useful to astronomers: Studying its
shape could yield a better understanding of Proxima b's mass, which is
not known very well at the moment, the researchers said.
And then there's the exploration angle. The $100 million Breakthrough
Starshot project aims to send sail-equipped, laser-driven microprobes
zooming past Proxima b in the not-too-distant-future, and mapping out
the system's dust environment could be key to the success of such a
mission, study team members said.
"These first results show that ALMA can detect dust structures orbiting
around Proxima. Further observations will give us a more detailed
description of Proxima's planetary system," study co-author Pedro Amado,
also from the Instituto de Astrofiscia de Andaluicia, said in the same
statement. "What we are seeing now is just the appetizer compared to
what is coming!"
The new study has been accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal
Letters.
Follow Nola Taylor Redd at @NolaTRedd, Facebook, or Google+. Follow us
at @Spacedotcom, Facebookor Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
EDITOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS
Proxima b: 6 Strange Facts About a Potentially Earth-Like Exoplanet
Alien Planet Quiz: Are You an Exoplanet Expert?
10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life
https://www.space.com/38681-proxima-b-alien-planet-possible-neighbors.html
a425couple
Nov 8, 2017, 10:39:49 AM11/8/17
to
On 11/7/2017 9:33 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
When are you predicting that is going to be?
How long did the longest lived species we know
about last?
> The Sun will leave the Main Sequence eventually. Proxima Centauri
> will last much longer, so we need to prepare to move there.
Down that path, far away in time, how do you believe
we will investigate potentially colonizationable solar
systems?
1. Improving our very long range sensors.
2. Sending probes out to investigate & report back.
3. Send a very long living "colony ship" out.
> On Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 9:11:54 PM UTC-7, a425couple wrote:
>
>> (Perhaps we will just continue to improve our sensing
>> abilities ((all matter of telescopes etc.)) and never
>> need to actually send out any probes, or stargliders!)
>
> The Sun will leave the Main Sequence eventually.
>
>> (Perhaps we will just continue to improve our sensing
>> abilities ((all matter of telescopes etc.)) and never
>> need to actually send out any probes, or stargliders!)
>
When are you predicting that is going to be?
How long did the longest lived species we know
about last?
> The Sun will leave the Main Sequence eventually. Proxima Centauri
> will last much longer, so we need to prepare to move there.
Down that path, far away in time, how do you believe
we will investigate potentially colonizationable solar
systems?
1. Improving our very long range sensors.
2. Sending probes out to investigate & report back.
3. Send a very long living "colony ship" out.
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