The Orion's Arm Universe Project Forums

I just found this article from Universe today. Astronomers have apparently found a terrestrial planet close enough to Proxima Centauri that it's in the habitable zone, and could support water on it's surface!

I literally found this article like 10 minutes ago. What's really cool is we already have a couple of terrestrial planets for Proxima Centauri in the Encyclopedia.

http://www.universetoday.com/130276/eart...iscovered/

http://www.orionsarm.com/eg-article/4ce52fdf5e9de

Anyone have thoughts on this?

Interesting, but the whole bit about being reachable in our lifetimes is breathing a bit too heavy for the circumstances IMHO.

Yes, if something like Project Starshot is ever built (and when might that happen, and how long would it take to build), then it could send a probe within a human lifetime (if all goes as planned). However, note the number of variables there.

I would be happier if they spoke more in terms of 'a human lifetime', rather than making it sound like current readers will live to see this happen.

My 2c worth,

Todd

The first thing to do would be to focus an Unfeasibly Large Telescope on the system, to see what can be seen by reflected light.

The first thing to do is to have the discovery confirmed as real; the alpha Centauri Bb incident of 2012 (apparently "discovered" by the same team that announced this discovery) would counsel caution*. However, if there is a terrestrial planet orbiting within Proxima's (an M6Ve red dwarf) Habitable Zone, it would be tide-locked and subject to Proximan flares.

* The jury is still out for the existence (or not) of alpha Centauri Bc, though Bb has been shown to be an artifact of the data rather than an actual planet.

Radtech497