Potentially habitable exoplanet candi spotted around Alpha Centauri A in Earth's backyard

[Admin]

The nearest solar system to our own may actually host two potentially life-supporting planets as a new candi emerges around Alpha Centauri A, a new study reports.

Potentially habitable exoplanet candi spotted around Alpha Centauri A in Earth's backyard : Read more

 

[rod]

The article shows caution is needed here concerning this possible, exoplanet identification. "After analyzing 100 hours of data gathered by NEAR in May and June of 2019, the scientists detected a thermal fingerprint in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A. The signal potentially corresponds to a roughly Neptune-size world orbiting between 1 and 2 astronomical units (AU) from the star, study team members said. (One AU, the average Earth-sun distance, is about 93 million miles, or 150 million kilometers.)"

I also note this from the online paper link provided, "In other words, C1 is not a known systematic artifact, and is consistent with being either a Neptune-to-Saturn-sized planet or an exozodiacal dust disk."

 

[Helio]

I am guessing that if this exoplanet exists, then it may have a large enough moon that could be hospitable. That's a couple of big "ifs", but this would be huge given all the Scify of alpha Cen.

So would this hypothetical moon, if discovered, be designated Alpha Cen Ab I?

 

[rod]

Helio, reference your post #3 question about a moon discovered *if*. If C1 is confirmed as an exoplanet and it has a moon confirmed, I recommend calling it C1 Helio

 

[sam85geo]

Really great tantalizing maybes. I would like to see a global program to get some probes out to the 4.7 ly range of Alpha Centauri A and B. Since these stars are spectral class G and K respectively, the global space communities should have the instrumentation to get some definitive measurements and associated data. So it takes about 20 years more or less, and costs a lot. But consider that in 20 years economic inflation will have underwritten any debt, and there may be "good news" along the lines of Stephen Hawking's observation about humanity's future.

 

[Helio]

Helio, reference your post #3 question about a moon discovered *if*. If C1 is confirmed as an exoplanet and it has a moon confirmed, I recommend calling it C1 Helio

I favor that the planet be given the name that Herschel had given to his famous first for historical mankind (a new planet) -- George! [The French will still be unhappy with it, no doubt. ]

 

[Helio]

Really great tantalizing maybes. I would like to see a global program to get some probes out to the 4.7 ly range of Alpha Centauri A and B. Since these stars are spectral class G and K respectively, the global space communities should have the instrumentation to get some definitive measurements and associated data. So it takes about 20 years more or less, and costs a lot. But consider that in 20 years economic inflation will have underwritten any debt, and there may be "good news" along the lines of Stephen Hawking's observation about humanity's future.

The 20 year figure assumes a speed a little greater than 0.2c. This was proposed for a super tiny probe that could utilize solar wind and light pressure. There wasn't much I saw to explain how it would be able to send back a strong enough signal of any use. [Perhaps a 1000 of them could be sent and sequenced to be used as repeaters.]

Also, a slightly faster probe might easily overtake it with better technology. My guess is they will look for an optimal sweet spot in cost and technology.

It may be cheaper and a lot quicker to have space interferometers where we could observe constantly.

A 230 km effective aperture diameter would allow up to 230km resolution (pixels) at 4.5 lyrs.