Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
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Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#2That is pretty exciting. Some say life would be difficult because Proxima Centauri is a flare star, which has violent outbursts of radiation. Not more than the sun though, even if it is so much smaller. But the habitable zone would also be much closer to the star.
It has a significant life span of about 4 trillion years and could easily outlive the present universe several times.
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#3Perhaps it's too soon after reading The Dark Forest, but uh oh.
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#4Sweet let's crank up the generation ships. Of course picking a suitably inspiring name should be the first priority. Unity? Terra Nova? Gaia?
On a more serious note is this a good candidate for JWST, would it be able to infer chemical composition from the planet's spectrum or something?
Awesome though we went from (in my lifetime) learning at school that other planets have never been observed, to finding them sprinkled around basically every star just like our own. I feel like it won't be long before we detect the first potential chemical markers of alien life, if it's out there. Keep doing your thing space science folk!
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#5"The team used a state-of-the art spectrograph called ESPRESSO"
And suddenly i am imagining lots of very smart people drinking lots of caffeine.
"To find the wobble.."
this is not helping :)
"ESPRESSO is kept in a special room at the observatory, inside a tank "
oh come on ..
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#6Perhaps it's too soon after reading The Dark Forest, but uh oh.
Let's send them a ping. What could go wrong?
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#7[deleted]
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#8Sweet let's crank up the generation ships. Of course picking a suitably inspiring name should be the first priority. Unity? Terra Nova? Gaia? On a more serious note is this a good candidate for JWST, would it be able to infer chemical composition from the planet's spectrum or something? Awesome though we went from (in my lifetime) learning at school that other planets have never been observed, to finding them sprinkl…
It would be even more exciting if we detect industrial processes.
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#9Sweet let's crank up the generation ships. Of course picking a suitably inspiring name should be the first priority. Unity? Terra Nova? Gaia? On a more serious note is this a good candidate for JWST, would it be able to infer chemical composition from the planet's spectrum or something? Awesome though we went from (in my lifetime) learning at school that other planets have never been observed, to finding them sprinkl…
Generation ships will take some time to get ready. We can railgun tardigrades and aphanizomenon flos-aquae there this year and let evolution do the rest. By the time we (or, more likely, the descendants of cockroaches) get there, it will be teeming with DNA-based life.
Re: Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun’s closest star
#10Sweet let's crank up the generation ships. Of course picking a suitably inspiring name should be the first priority. Unity? Terra Nova? Gaia? On a more serious note is this a good candidate for JWST, would it be able to infer chemical composition from the planet's spectrum or something? Awesome though we went from (in my lifetime) learning at school that other planets have never been observed, to finding them sprinkl…
Before anyone gets too excited I'd just point out that all they have found is a rocky world within Proxima's habitable zone. That doesn't mean that world necessarily has a breathable atmosphere, water, sufficient gravity, a geomagnetic field, rotation sufficient to distribute heat equitably across its surface (as opposed to it being tidally locked facing Proxima), or any of a dozen other features requisite to support life.
Oh... and did I mention that Proxima is a known flare star?
Wake me up when they find a terrestrial world in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri instead.