Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A View from Next Door

NASA ^ | October 18, 2012 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Located just next door, Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to the Sun. A view from our interstellar neighbor a mere 4.3 light-years away is shown in this illustration. The Sun is at the upper right, a bright star against the background of the Milky Way. The crescent in the foreground is an artist's rendering of a planet now reported orbiting Alpha Centauri B, making it the closest known exoplanet. Discovered by astronomer Xavier Dumusque et al. using the planet hunting HARPS instrument to measure minute shifts in the star's spectrum for more than four years, the planet has approximately the same mass as Earth. But it orbits once every 3.2 days, about 0.04 times the Earth-Sun distance from its parent star. That puts it well outside the habitable zone, much too close to Alpha Cen B, a star only a little cooler than the Sun. Still, estimates indicate that planetary orbits would be stable within the habitable zone of Alpha Cen B, at about half the Earth-Sun distance ...

[SunkenCiv]

[Illustration Credit: European Southern Observatory, L. Calçada, N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)]

[SunkenCiv]

• Planet Found in Nearest Star System to Earth
• Alpha Centauri B Has An Earth-Mass Planet
• Nearest Star System Might Harbor Earth Twin

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[Inyo-Mono]

Very interesting! Thanks for posting.

[SunkenCiv]

• Astronomy Picture of the Day -- A View from Next Door
• New Planet in Neighborhood, Astronomically Speaking
• Planetary Prospects Around Centauri B

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[SunkenCiv]

The bigger version of the graphic is even better.

[Inyo-Mono]

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

[One Name]

Was it created or did it just randomly happen?

If random, we are just molecules bouncing around, with no purpose other than that which we ascribe as living “victims” of randomness, cursed with a conscience, and consciousness.

The random theory of our consciousness seems somewhat counterintuitive.

I submit a universe by design, which belies a Creator.

Genesis 1
King James Version (KJV)

1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven....

Thanks, as always for posting!

[BenLurkin]

Tantalyzingly close.

[albionin]

Yes. I often look up at the stars and wonder if someone on a planet circling one of those stars is looking at our star and wondering the same thing. I wish I could live long enough to see man’s first mission to another solar system but I like bacon too much.

[albionin]

I keep seeing the word random used as if this universe is somehow 1 out of many possible universes. However, this is the only universe and so it is not random chance but a certainty since it is the only possible one. Just a thought.

[kidd]

...a planet now reported orbiting Alpha Centauri B, making it the closest known exoplanet...

I believe the premise of the TV show "Lost In Space" was to travel to a newly discovered planet that was orbiting Alpha Centauri

We don't have a Jupiter 2 though. Oh the pain, the pain...

[One Name]

I believe there is only one “universe”, by definition it would take in everything that exists.

The “random” part is a take that particles and atoms and molecules collide randomly and that somehow without plan or design the current structure and human consciousness and the animal world arose. I find that hard to swallow.

But, then, if we are not all just accidents from molecules banging around, then what are we?

I submit there is a God and Creator.

[wardaddy]

very nice

the stars are spectacular in brisk middle Tennessee tonight

about 40...lads and I just took Wrangler out topdown for a country ride

amazing

damn I do not know why I purposedly lived in city’s so much of my life

wasted in this regard

[cripplecreek]

[TheOldLady]

Our closest exoplanet is uninhabitable? Dang. There go my vacation plans.

[TheOldLady]

Wow!

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Inyo-Mono!