Alpha Centari B - Possibility of Terrestrial Planet?

[Meredith]

[FONT=arial][FONT=arial] Earth may have a twin orbiting one of our nearest stellar neighbors, a new study suggests.
University of California, Santa Cruz graduate student Javiera Guedes used computer simulations of planet formation to show that terrestrial planets are likely to have formed around one of the stars in the Alpha Centauri star system, our closest stellar neighbors.
Guedes' model showed planets forming around the star Alpha Centauri B (its sister star, Proxima Centauri, is actually our nearest neighbor) in what is called the "habitable zone," or the region around a star where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface.
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http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/080307-another-earth.html



Sounds interesting, my question is why this wasn't done sooner....

 

[flux_29]

Because it's one thing to see a "woble" produced by a gas giant (against it's sun) but it's very hard to see a woble of a tiny rocky planet like our own.

 

[Bill Morris]

Actually, Alpha Centauri A is first on NASA's list of top 100 target stars for the Terrestrial Planet Finder project, and Alpha Centauri B is second. Get it funded, and we'll know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Finder

 

[bigdaddy]

Actually, Alpha Centauri A is first on NASA's list of top 100 target stars for the Terrestrial Planet Finder project, and Alpha Centauri B is second. Get it funded, and we'll know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_Planet_Finder

If it was funded it most likely wouldn't work, knowing NASA, and will take forever to get there.

And why do the aliens need water? Good scientists say they don't, bad (and REALLY dumb) ones think they do.

 

[Zachary Smith]

Ohhhh, the pain! THE PAIN!!!

 

[anti-matter]

Seems to me it would be an easy take for the Hubble space Telescope to have the last say on this...Oh & btw this is exciting news.

 

[MIB]

^Pointing a telescope straight at a star doesn't tend to produce usable results. Hence the inception of the Terrestrial Planet Finder. A telescope specifically designed to filter out the ubiquitous glare from parent stars that would blind telescopes like Hubble from detecting planets.

 

[scotthm]

If it was funded it most likely wouldn't work, knowing NASA

How true. After all, they did have to fake the moon landings.

And why do the aliens need water? Good scientists say they don't, bad (and REALLY dumb) ones think they do.

I would have thought that 'good' scientists would have had to observe some aliens in order to come to such a conclusion. I guess imagination is now 'good science'.

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[All Seeing Eye]

Wouldnt it be great if there was an Earth like planet so close to Earth and it had animal life.

 

[Lindley]

Wouldnt it be great if there was an Earth like planet so close to Earth and it had animal life.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. A noncorrosive atmosphere and reasonable temperatures would be a good starting point.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Wouldnt it be great if there was an Earth like planet so close to Earth and it had animal life.

Let's not get ahead of ourselves. A noncorrosive atmosphere and reasonable temperatures would be a good starting point.

yes but what if there IS a planet and there IS animal life! i'm getting excited.

 

[LaxScrutiny]

Yes, but what if there IS a planet and there IS animal life and they're intelligent and humanoid and primarily female, and they're hot, and they really really really need men? I'm getting really excited now.

 

[TerriO]

Let's keep our sexual fantasies private where they belong, 'kay?