Possible 3rd planet spotted around Proxima Centauri, the sun's nearest neighbor star

[Admin]

Astronomers have found evidence of a third planet circling Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf star that lies just 4.2 light-years from the sun.

Possible 3rd planet spotted around Proxima Centauri, the sun's nearest neighbor star : Read more

 

[rod]

My observation. Proxima d is listed at http://exoplanet.eu/catalog/proxima_d/

Using my astronomy spreadsheet and properties shown in the link, orbital period = 5.0866E+00 day, thus P= 5.0866 day. The link shows P = 5.122 day. In one billion year time period, this exoplanet could complete 7.1807E+10 revolutions around the host star, more than 71 billion. The mass for this exoplanet is about 0.26 earth masses with host star about 0.12 solar mass. Proxima Centauri b and c show exoplanet masses 1.07 earth mass and 7.7866 earth masses. Using the MMSN and applying to 0.12 solar mass star, total dust and gas in a postulated protoplanetary disk could be close to 400 earth masses or even as little as close to 40 earth masses.

 

[Potawatomi4]

How exciting! How more exciting to find earth like planets around Alpha Centauri A and B.

 

[Helio]

Using the temperature-radius method, the short orbital period puts it too close to the star to be in the habitable zone. It's ~ 50% the HZ width too short.

But, using the Mv-distance-spectral class method puts it outside the HZ (125% past the outer limit). The red dwarfs, however, are tricky with this method, at least for me, so the above is likely far more accurate.