Possible habital world next door.
Posted on 24 Aug 2016 @ 9:42pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim
Edited on 25 Aug 2016 @ 2:37am
I am sure some may have seen this and I have held off but the paper has been
accepted by peer review Nature (and trust me they are tough). A planet has beeb discovered in the habital zone and is rocky with an estimated size of 1.3 earth madd
orbiting proxima centauri.
What makes it exciting is even with existing technology it could be visited
within most of our members lifetimes.
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by Petty Officer 3rd Class Micah Hershey on 25 Aug 2016 @ 1:23am
This is really exciting! But we should probably stay cautious! There's a lot of hurdles for this world to meet "Earth-like" standards. We might be able to train our telescopes on it to get a good spectral read on it's atmosphere. But sadly our best systems can't get us there for over 10,000 years. But that'll change.
There is a lot going for the planet but at the same time, a lot of difficulty. Right now there's no sign of other, larger worlds that may have not been able to shield it from outer system detritus (comets, dust etc). So that may be a downer. Aldo because Proxima is a red dwarf, it means that it is a very dim, cool star. So Proxima b is going to be very very close to the star to get habitable. Thats Ok but it enormously increases the chances that the world is tide-locked. And if it's tidelocked it may lower those chances for life. One side will always be baked by the sun and the other will be exposed to the cold of space. Unless it has good winds to distribute that heat and cold, it'll be more like a cool mercury. Also with it being that much closer to the star, it's at the mercy of solar winds and CME.
Anyway its still super exciting! :D
by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim on 25 Aug 2016 @ 2:36am
More than likely no life. Several things. Proxima b is a red dwarf that is a known flare star. That means some pretty violent solar flares. Also, due the distance from the proxima in order to be in the habitable zone (the place where water would exist most likely as liquid), it is probably tidally locked meaning one side facing the star and the other away at all times.
Still it is not beyound the possibility and right now no one knows enough.
The mere fact there is a planet there, and it is in the correct zone and it is possible to send a probe to with existing technology is something that would be worth doing and things have improved greatly since the 1977 launch of Voyager 1 (our only probe now in interstellar space).
Sorry if I gave the impression that the paper in Nature I had anything to do with. I did not. I have only one publication in Nature and that was a completely different topic.
MArilyn