Astronomy Picture of the Day
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 25 
Posted on 08/25/2016 4:09:01 AM PDT by ThomasMore
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2016 August 25
Explanation: The star closest to the Sun has a planet similar to the Earth. As announced yesterday, recent observations confirmed that this planet not only exists but inhabits a zone where its surface temperature could allow liquid water, a key ingredient for life on Earth. It is not yet known if this planet, Proxima b, has any life. Even if not, its potential ability to sustain liquid water might make it a good first hop for humanity's future trips out into the Milky Way Galaxy. Although the planet's parent star, Proxima Centauri, is cooler and redder than our Sun, one of the other two stars in the Alpha Centauri star system is very similar to our Sun. The featured image shows the sky location of Proxima Centauri in southern skies behind the telescope that made many of the discovery observations: ESO's 3.6-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile. The discovered planet orbits close in -- so close one year there takes only 11 days on Earth. The planet was discovered by the ESO's Pale Red Dot collaboration. Although seemingly unlikely, if Proxima b does have intelligent life, at 4.25 light years
(Excerpt) Read more at apod.nasa.gov ...
If you want on the APOD list or off the list, Freepmail me
Was listening to John Batchelor last night as I was dropping off to sleep. He was interviewing a science reporter and they were discussing this topic. Fascinating! Even though Proxima Centauri is a red star and the planet is much closer to it than our earth is to the sun, the red star is so cool that the “Goldilocks zone” is just right regardless. Also, that planet does not rotate (as I recall), so one side is perpetually facing the red star, while the other is facing away. The reporter speculated, obviously, that any plant life would be on the side facing its red sun.
Don’t remember how they knew that the planet doesn’t rotate (was falling asleep - sorry).
A planet with a tidally locked synchronous rotation 5 million miles from a small (0.12 solar mass) star with strong x-ray emission from active stellar flaring.
Yeah, that’s so very “similar to Earth.” But the real evidence that the planet actually has some advanced form of intelligent life on that planet is whether they have the ability to prevent something like Hillary from running for a political office.
lol... can we send Hillary there with a one way ticket!
That close to even a red star I could hardly imagine it has an atmosphere.
Along with any water vapor. Any water remaining on the planet is probably frozen solid on the dark side.
186k miles per sec equates to something like 3.612 x 10 to the 12th miles away- 3,612,000,000,000 miles- yeah 3.6 trillion.
At a “leisurely” 100k mph (out of reach so far) that would be only 3.612 x 10 to the 7th- 36,120,000 years to get there- yeah 36 million years.....
At a million miles per hour ( play star trek theme song now) that would be 36 years......
Even if I shanked my scientific notation by a factor of 10 or even 100, you get the picture. We ain’t going no where.
Silly.
Yeah. And thats just one way. You’d have to square that distance coming back.
At a “leisurely” 100k mph (out of reach so far) that would be only 3.612 x 10 to the 7th- 36,120,000 years to get there- yeah 36 million years.....
At a million miles per hour ( play star trek theme song now) that would be 36 years......
Even if I shanked my scientific notation by a factor of 10 or even 100, you get the picture. We ain’t going no where.
Silly.
In the program, they speculate that a ship (which they dubbed "the Von Braun" could be built to travel at 20% the speed of light, or 37,000 miles/s.
The fictional planet, Darwin IV, was 6.5 light years away. The unmanned robotic Von Braun made it there in 42 years.
You made an error, you divided distance by miles per hour. Your result would be the number of hours it would take to get to there, not years. The real result would be about 6710 years. Which is longer than recorded history.
37k mps equates to 133,200,000 mph ( 37k x 3600 sec/hr), bit faster than my 100k mph.
Did they just speculate or did they have some idea about a technology to accomplish that speed?
Silly me, they are fools.
My mistake, I used one light year instead of 4.5. The travel time in years would be closer to 29,000 years.
Yep, you’re correct- but as I said, even if I shanked the math by a factor or 10 or 100, I’d still be correct- we ain’t getting there.
My result was a bit different than yours- 3.612 x10 7th divided by 8760 hours per year came up as 1.142 x 10 3rd- more than an eon even so. Let’s assume one generation every 20 years, so that would be about 60 generations- assuming no offspring croaked to mess up the trip.
And folks think I am nuts for believing the Holy Scriptures? I am awaiting the New Jerusalem and the New Heavens and the New earth!
I am not qualified to answer scientifically. I suggest you watch the program. If you believe that Stephen Hawking, George Lucas, Michio Kaku and Jack Horner are all fools, then of course that is your opinion. All I was saying is that it is a fascinating program.
Have a nice day!
I wish them well on their flights of fancy.
Thanks for posting what I was thinking. It’s a flare star! Not very habitable.
Now if the planet had somehow produced a magnetic field (not very likely) then it ‘MIGHT’ have some type of atmosphere, but, not very likely at all.
As for the speed to get there, the problem isn’t the speed to get there, the problem would be slowing down to stay there. You get going up to .25c or so, you could get there in a reasonable amount of time, but, you would have to slow down for a long time to keep from overshooting the system altogether.
Physics be a harsh mistress! ARRRRRHHHH!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
