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Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 3:36 pm
Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us — and it may also be the closest possible abode for life outside the Solar System. A paper describing this milestone finding will be published in the journal Nature on 25 August 2016.
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 5:06 pm
With an orbit that close, would it not be locked-in gravitationally?
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm
(This post was last modified: August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm by Alex K.)
It could still be comfy if it has an atmosphere that distributes the heat. Might be a bit windy though... Otherwise, the transition region is the place to be. By the way, the average equilibrium temperature of Proxima b is estimated to be something like -30°C, far below freezing, and would have to be lifted to nice levels by the greenhouse effect. The same happens on Earth as well, albeit to a slightly lesser degree.
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 5:51 pm
More good news - you can stay at a five-star hotel in the Emerald City, provided you change trains at Isengard.
Boru
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 6:13 pm
Proxima Centauri is a flare star. That means it is undergoes large random fluctuations in output. This may mean unless the planet's atmosphere has very large thermal inertia, the atmospheric condition and surface temperature of the planet would also undergo large fluctuations.
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm
Great.
Another planet we're gonna ruin.
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RE: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star
August 24, 2016 at 6:39 pm
(August 24, 2016 at 6:22 pm)Bella Morte Wrote: Great.
Another planet we're gonna ruin.
I doubt that very much. We can't ruin it, since we can't get to it.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
