Posted on 10/06/2016 12:26:27 PM PDT by LibWhacker
An artist's impression of the planet Proxima b, orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, released by the European Southern Observatory on August 24, 2016
A rocky planet discovered in the "habitable" zone of the star nearest our Sun may be covered with oceans, researchers at France's CNRS research institute said Thursday.
A team including CNRS astrophysicists have calculated the size and surface properties of the planet dubbed Proxima b, and concluded it may be an "ocean planet" similar to Earth.
Scientists announced Proxima b's discovery in August, and said it may be the first exoplanet—planet outside our Solar System—to one day be visited by robots from Earth.
The planet orbits within a "temperate" zone from its host star Proxima Centauri, some four light years from us.
It is estimated to have a mass about 1.3 times that of Earth, and orbits about 7.5 million kilometres (4.6 million miles) from its star—about a tenth the distance of innermost planet Mercury from the Sun.
"Contrary to what one might expect, such proximity does not necessarily mean that Proxima b's surface is too hot" for water to exist in liquid form, said a CNRS statement.
Proxima Centauri is smaller and 1,000 times weaker than our Sun, which means Proxima b is at exactly the right distance for conditions to be potentially habitable.
"The planet may very well host liquid water on its surface, and therefore also some forms of life," the statement said.
Discovery of an exoplanet near Earth
The size of exoplanets are generally calculated by measuring how much light they block out, from Earth's perspective, when they pass in front of their host star.
But no such transit of Proxima b has yet been observed, so the team had to rely on simulations to estimate the planet's composition and radius.
They calculated the radius was between 0.94 and 1.4 times that of Earth, which is 6,371 kilometres on average.
Assuming a minimum radius of 5,990 km, the planet would be very dense, with a metallic core making up two-thirds of the entire planet's mass, surrounded by a rocky mantle.
If there is surface water, it would not contribute more than 0.05 percent to the planet's total mass, the team said—similar to Earth, where it is about 0.02 percent.
In the larger planet scenario, with a radius of 8,920 km, Proxima b's mass would be split 50-50 between a rocky centre and surrounding water.
"In this case, Proxima b would be covered by a single, liquid ocean 200 km deep," said the CNRS.
"In both cases, a thin, gassy atmosphere could surround the planet, like on Earth, rendering Proxima b potentially habitable," it concluded.
Explore further: Proxima b could be a life-friendly planet, says one of the co-discoverers
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-10-planet-star-nearest-sun-oceans.html#jCp
No one will ever know for sure whether it has oceans. Who is going to take a trip to another star, knowing you will certainly die before ever arriving? What government could fund a 500 or 1,000-year mission for a stellar probe? This is fantasy, not science.
My guess is that it may not have oceans
Gravity pulls everything down into a rounded shape, for objects more massive than, say, 10% of earth’s mass, iirc.
Think of it as a giant spherical sucking machine, or vacuum cleaner, a very powerful one. Imagine what such a vacuum would do to a cloud of dust. The final clump of dust the vacuum cleaner created would be round, not having giant spiky tendrils of dust sticking out everywhere, because, if they even tried to form, they would be pulled down tight to the central mass, and wouldn’t stick out; it’d be a roundish ball of dust.
OTOH, something created by a less powerful vacuum cleaner, could be potato shaped, all lumpy, etc. Thus, planets are round. Asteroids, at least the smaller ones, have all kinds of shapes, potatoes, etc.
Like I say, no one will ever know.
To your question — absolutely. Why not? It’s a better cause IMO than most of the other crap government wastes money on.
Voyager,,,That is it.
Imagine that apparatus has not gotten stopped.
A big Universe...
Hey they are planning Mars but to dream of these things when our Nation needs to be saved from suicide....
gravity pulls everything towards the center
if it is big enough, it forms a globe
No one has to go there to get that information. Project Starchip in one such idea, not science fiction.
On a somewhat related note, anyone else reading the “Three Body Problem” series? Scifi books from a Chinese author that involve first contact with a civilization from the triple-star Centauri system who evolved with very unique problems due to the the unpredictable motion of the 3 stars near their planet. Very interesting stuff.
Man, their store people must have to change their seasonal displays like crazy!
Yes, just think about it. If you were born there you could legally drink alcohol at 8 months old (21 Proxima Centauri years old).
My wife read one of those. Loved it. Now she’s reading the other two.
Yeah I only read the first one. Going to pick up the other two today I think, I need some new reading material.
Whoa...EXACT distance the article says. They know so much. Will they apologize when they find out it is off by a few thousand miles.
Planet in star system nearest our Sun 'may have oceans'It also "may" have rainbows and unicorns.
But it's probably a barren, lifeless hulk.
Ancient astronaut theories say yes, lots and lots of oceans, and a race of intelligent dolphins with space ships, lots and lots of space ships, and ...
Warp speed. The numbers change by the episode.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive
A nice healthy atmosphere could mitigate some of that and extremophiles could, possibly, endure it without a heavy atmosphere. But life, if it's there, is probably going to be weirder than weird. The fact scientists are still talking about possible life on Titan tells me that well-adapted forms of life may very well be able to handle anything Proxima b throws at them!
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