(August 24, 2016 at 6:39 pm)BrianSoddingBoru4 Wrote:

(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

Perhaps. A 4.2ly journey doesn't require relatavistic speeds if you're patient enough - and that might be attainable.

With a star shield (Google it) to block out light from the parent star, the James Webb telescope should be adequate to get a spectroscopic reading of the atmosphere - if it has one, of course. A professor at MIT (Sara Seager) has been active trying to drum up support for a star shield and large telescope. I recall her saying the Webb would be good for any close-by planets. Can't get any closer than this one.

I'm just a layman but I don't have high hopes for this one at all. The flare activity of the parent star is a deal-breaker, I fear. It would never give an atmosphere a chance to even develop - never mind maintain itself. But who knows? It's still exciting news. Now we know that two stars within 5 light years of each other both have earth-sized planets in the Goldilocks zone. That has pretty wild implications.

Er . .

an object in an 11 day 'year' around a red dwarf doesn't really say Class M to me

(August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm)Alex K Wrote: 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.

There's no mention of its possible mass in the articles I've read, but it seems to me that orbiting so close, and so quickly, it cannot have that much to it -- meaning it might have trouble retaining an atmosphere.

Apparently some billionare Russian is putting in a fuckload of cash to invent a postage stamp size spaceship that will travel there on a laser beam and would only take twenty years.
Currently, if you wanted to send a human it would take 60000 years unfortunately.
The planet is seven times closer to it's sun then mercury is to ours, but it's a weak sun so this places it in the goldilocks zone.
Because it's so close it will always face one direction so you've got a hot side and a cold side with inhabitability only around the cusp.
It's 30% bigger than earth and most likely to be rocky.
I just heard all that on the radio. :-)

(August 25, 2016 at 1:35 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm)Alex K Wrote: 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.

There's no mention of its possible mass in the articles I've read, but it seems to me that orbiting so close, and so quickly, it cannot have that much to it -- meaning it might have trouble retaining an atmosphere.

I think I read it was 1.3x earth so all else being equal - which it's not of course - it should be able to hold on to an atmosphere.

Regardless if it's suitable for life - particularly human life - I think the discovery is exciting.

(August 25, 2016 at 1:35 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:

(August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm)Alex K Wrote: 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.

There's no mention of its possible mass in the articles I've read, but it seems to me that orbiting so close, and so quickly, it cannot have that much to it -- meaning it might have trouble retaining an atmosphere.

M>1.3 Earth masses, strictly speaking 1.3/Sin a where a is the angle of the ecliptic as seen from eartg

(August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm)Alex K Wrote: 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.

We can always go there and fire up some plants working alot of CO2. Or we could plant weed there and make it free to smoke. It will all feel so great then.

(August 25, 2016 at 4:37 am)LastPoet Wrote:

(August 24, 2016 at 5:25 pm)Alex K Wrote: 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.

We can always go there and fire up some plants working alot of CO2. Or we could plant weed there and make it free to smoke. It will all feel so great then.

I'm sure I wouldn't mind the latter.

P.S. I hope Mom and baby are doing well, and you too.

(August 25, 2016 at 3:29 am)Alex K Wrote:

(August 25, 2016 at 1:35 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: There's no mention of its possible mass in the articles I've read, but it seems to me that orbiting so close, and so quickly, it cannot have that much to it -- meaning it might have trouble retaining an atmosphere.

M>1.3 Earth masses, strictly speaking 1.3/Sin a where a is the angle of the ecliptic as seen from eartg

So then atmospheric heat-retention is a possibility. Thanks for the noodly-headed stuff.