NFT: Habitable, Earth-like planet near Proxima Centauri?

I'm surprised it wasn't spotted sooner, being so close.

Looking forward to the press conference / announcement.

thanks for posting.

Just visited the Kennedy Space Center in July and it was awesome. But these kind of stories seem like so much hype. As if they really know what going on or even could be going on on a planet that is about 24x10/12 miles away. The absolute most you could say about the habitability of this planet is just wild speculation.

Isn't that where the Last Starfighter had to go to save the Universe?

Centauri is a red dwarf star. They are 80-85% of the stars in the Milky Way. But although not impossible, red dwarfs are much less likely than our sun to have planets with life.

In the linked article, scroll down to the section "habitability of red dwarf systems."
Proxima Centauri - ( New Window )

Quote:

Although it has a very low average luminosity, Proxima is a flare star that undergoes random dramatic increases in brightness because of magnetic activity.

Stability (the Sun, the Earth's orbital eccentricity, tilt etc.) seem to all be major factors in the evolution of life over billions of years.

The first link implied "Goldie Locks zone", but it seems difficult that there would be a stable Goldie Locks zone around a flare star.

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In comment 13084243 BillT said:

Quote:

Just visited the Kennedy Space Center in July and it was awesome. But these kind of stories seem like so much hype. As if they really know what going on or even could be going on on a planet that is about 24x10/12 miles away. The absolute most you could say about the habitability of this planet is just wild speculation.

True, but there are some serious telescopes going online in the next couple years and you can bet if this is true it will jump to the top of the list of what to examine more closely. In addition to Tabby's star :)

... sheeesh.







j/k ;-)

In comment 13084243 BillT said:

Quote:

The absolute most you could say about the habitability of this planet is just wild speculation.

I agree with "speculation," but I don't agree with "wild." The speculation, particularly from the scientific agencies, is careful, not wild. And today's careful speculation may very well lead to tomorrow's more precise and reliable knowledge.

In comment 13084288 Mr. Bungle said:

Quote:

In comment 13084243 BillT said: Quote: The absolute most you could say about the habitability of this planet is just wild speculation. I agree with "speculation," but I don't agree with "wild." The speculation, particularly from the scientific agencies, is careful, not wild. And today's careful speculation may very well lead to tomorrow's more precise and reliable knowledge.

Just to have it said: the scientific position doesn't appear to be monolithic on this issue.

As the wiki link shows, there are a good deal of scientists who tend to conclude at this point that the chances of life as we know it near such a star are quite remote.

but I tend to think we're better off alone in the universe.

more than one country can leave the earth on it's own.

until then, it's interesting to study the solar system, and we should continue to do so, but ultimately, space studies aren't much more than trivia.

that goes into detail about what "Earth-like" means to an astronomer.

Quote:

If we did indeed find an Earth-mass, Earth-sized planet orbiting around Proxima Centauri at the right distance for liquid water on its surface, it gives us tremendous hope that Earth-like worlds are present around perhaps even most of the stars in the Universe. After all, only 5% of all stars are as massive as our own Sun, while 75% of stars are red dwarfs like Proxima Centauri. Based on mass and size measurements, we could confirm that the planet is rocky, rather than gas-like or with a hydrogen/helium envelope. And if we could measure the light from the planet directly, using a variety of astronomical techniques to subtract the light from the parent star, we might even be able to tell whether the planet appears uniform over time (like a fully-clouded world like Venus does) or whether it has brightness features that change over time (like a partially clouded world like Earth does).

Quote:

But most striking are the things we wouldn’t yet know, which include: Whether this world has a surface temperature like Venus, like Earth or like Mars , which depend very strongly on properties we can’t measure like the atmosphere’s composition. Whether there’s the potential for liquid water on its surface, which requires the knowledge of atmospheric pressure. Whether there’s a magnetic field shielding the planet from solar radiation, or whether that’s necessary to protect any life that arose on the world. Whether solar activity has fried any life that could have existed in the early stages. Or whether the atmosphere has any biosignatures or not.

What An Earth-Like World Around Proxima Centauri Would (And Wouldn't) Mean - ( New Window )

It's very cool. Can't wait to hear more about it.

is an article about the discovery, and the problems living on planets orbiting red dwarf stars.
Living on Proxima b - ( New Window )

that some of this stuff is likely from the "research racket" with academic types with data points and funding to write a paper on it. So many of these NASA "jobs programs" types that have little effort or motivational agenda to focus it, like landing on the moon or landing a man on mars. Will be interesting to see how NASA fares moving forward now that Barbara Mikulski is leaving congress. Probably better to put this in private hands and I guess quite of bit of it is already.

the value of such research is questionable, but much less so than PR stunts of manned space research. Going to Mars would be a horrible, horrible waste of research dollars.

But, it isn't going to happen, at least not in my lifetime (currently 56). I'd be surprised if there's a space station at the end of my life (presuming I live 30 years)