Alpha Centauri

[nopatience]

wouldn't the "habitable zone be larger with a planet that had two suns. the light absorbtion would be increased. the only darkness would be the shadows. but there would still have to be a "twilight area". the two suns orbital period of each other would alight the stars at certain times of the year, would it not?<br /><br />then of course if a planet is orbiting star b and star b is orbiting star a then there would have to be darkness. And in certain times of year the darkness would grow or shrink. It may even have a similar effect on seasons and tides.

 

[thalion]

<<Since there might be a Sun in the skies at all times, maybe never allowing claer dark skies, is it possible that even if intelligent life exists there (hypothetically) that it might have never developed very far in the field of astronomy.>><br /><br />I don't know--if the hypothetical aliens ever got curious, they could always travel to the twilight or night zone for a great view. <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" />

 

[silylene old]

Speaking of living on a planet in a multiple sun system, read this novelette. It's GREAT!<br /><br /><b>NIGHTFALL</b> by Isaac Asimov<br /><br />The lonely planet Kalgash roams the heavens in orbit around six suns, resulting in the odd situation of perpetual daylight all over the globe. No one on Kalgash has ever seen nightfall, even has any concept of what "night" is, and darkness, one of the most primal fears of even our own half-and-half world, is enough to drive a person mad if exposed to it for too long.<br /><br />Slowly, groups of scientists across Kalgash begin to conclude, through evidence both anthropological, mathematical and astronomical, that Kalgash has a satellite of its own that it never sees, and that satellite lines up just properly with the suns every 2049 years to create a total eclipse, plunging the planet into darkness for hours. The cataclysm will most certainly be enough to drive everyone mad, and the world as they know it will end.<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[steve01]

Hey everyone,<br />Scientists have stated that they have discovered dozens of exo-planets, most are many light-years away. Is there a reason they have not examined Alpha Centauri? Has it been ruled out all together? Does it's binary properties make it too hard to examine. It seems that something so close that is so simliar to our sun should be exhaustively observed! Any thoughts?

 

[thalion]

AC was probably very high on the list of stars to observe for exoplanets. To my knowledge, none that we can find (gas giants, or dust disks) have been discovered. This doesn't rule out smaller planets, though.<br /><br />I would think that its binary properties would not make it difficult to observe; the star stars are always separated by at least 2", and in fact for the past couple of decades have been near aphelion. The fact that the stars are not greatly dissimilar in brightness also makes them easy to observe:<br /><br />http://www.dibonsmith.com/cen_a.gif<br /><br />Rest assured that when SIM and TPF go up, or we have some super-sized ground-based telescopes, that AC will get plenty of close scrutiny.

 

[just_some_guy]

I think its a good thing that we havn't yet detected planets in the Alpha Centauri system. The detectable planets are big and orbit close to their parent stars. Planetary scientists think that to get into this position these planets would have to form at a much larger distance and then migrate inwards. This means that these hot jupiters have to migrate through the habitable zone, destroying any earth-sized planets on the way. That we havn't found planets in the AC system therefore means that there could still be earth-sized planets occupying habitable zones.

 

[5stone10]

Here's what JPL PlanetQuest has to say about it >><br />http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/news/alpha_centauri.html

 

[voyager12]

Is there a binary star ephemeris forecast for 2006 as to the apparent separation and position angle of Alpha Centauri's two primary components (A and B)?<br /><br />Was thinking of going Australia to see the pair for the first time.... so hope they are not too close together in 2006.<br /><br /><img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Thanks for any pointers<br /><br />Voyager12<br />http://www.publishedauthors.net/aa_spaceagent/<br />"The ultimate dream adventure awaiting humanity..."