Planet Found in Nearest Star System to Earth

European Southern Observatory ^ | 10/17/2012 | ESO

[VanShuyten]

European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system — the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the Sun. The planet was detected using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The results will appear online in the journal Nature on 17 October 2012.

[VanShuyten]

It's the right size, but too close to the star. They hope to find more planets there, maybe some in the "Goldilocks zone".

[Larry Lucido]

Dibs on beachfront property.

[freedumb2003]

Been there... (well, almost)

[hadaclueonce]

Hell, we cannot even get to our space station

Like buying an island and selling your boat. "maybe the guy down the beach will give me a ride"

[hadaclueonce]

Yes, we are that stupid.

[American Constitutionalist]

Wonder if their space craft could have even been plausible ?

[freedumb2003]

>>Wonder if their space craft could have even been plausible ?<<

Not with Dr. Smith on board!

[cripplecreek]

[aMorePerfectUnion]

I’ll keep this Earth. Do write back occasionally about the weather...

[NCDave]

>>Wonder if their space craft could have even been plausible ?<< "Not with Dr. Smith on board!" ABSOLUTELY!!! God, I hate that guy!

[cripplecreek]

If there is one it seems likely that there will be more. I would imagine the goldilocks zone is a bit further out than ours since the A star is hotter.

With the B star swinging around like that, I suspect there wouldn’t be a lot of debris like our kuiper belt.

This is actually some of the biggest science news we’ve seen for quite a while.

[Sirius Lee]

With the B star swinging around like that, I suspect there wouldn’t be a lot of debris like our kuiper belt.

Interesting "seasons" if there is one in the GLZ.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Reminds me of the comedian...I can’t remember his name...saying he didn’t think it was smart to beam ‘Hello’ messages into space because what if we get a response that’s like “Hey! How ya doing? Come on up!”

And we’d have to be like....”Um...can you meet us at the moon? We know we can get three guys there. But one of them has to stay in the car.”

[null and void]

WE aren’t, our “betters” are.

[cripplecreek]

The day night cycle would be interesting over the years. Some months there would be no midnight sun and for half the year there would be. Meanwhile the second sun would be getting closer.

[Defiant]

Isn’t that where they filmed “Lost in Space”? Is our flag still there?

[gonzo]

FYI ............................................................ FRegards

[VanShuyten]

Wouldn’t a binary system limit where planets could form? A planet as far out as Jupiter would be affected by both suns almost equally, so what would happen to all of our gas giants? I would think that only relatively small planets fairly close to each star would survive. Would 1 AU be close enough to be able to ignore the gravity of the other star?

[cripplecreek]

Yeah would think that planets would need to be relatively close to the parent star. The B star is cooler than our sun so you could get a tighter habitable zone despite the wide orbit.

[SunkenCiv]

• Alpha Centauri B Has An Earth-Mass Planet

Thanks gonzo.

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