Memammal Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Scientists have discovered a planet that appears to be similar to Earth circling the star closest to the sun, potentially a major step in the quest to find out if life exists elsewhere in the universe, research published on Wednesday showed. The relative proximity of the planet, known as Proxima b, gives scientists a better chance to eventually capture an image of it, to help them establish whether it has an atmosphere and water, which is believed to be necessary for life. Future studies may reveal if any atmosphere contains tell-tale chemicals of biological life, such as methane, according to a paper published in this week's issue of the journal Nature... The planet, located about 4.2 light-years from Earth, or 25 trillion miles (40 trillion km), is the closest of some 3,500 planets that have been discovered beyond the solar system since 1995, according to the paper. More here...http://www.reuters.com/article/us-space-planet-idUSKCN10Z28P 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrmDoc Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 It's my understanding that the proximity of Proxima b to its sun and it's sun type, a red dwarf, makes the possibility of life improbable by Earth standards. Proxima orbits its sun every 11 days, which suggests it may be tidal locked with one side in perpetual darkness and the other baking in perpetual sunlight. Proxima's closeness to its red dwarf sun also, as I understand, may have stripped away its atmosphere due to the planet's exposure to strong sun flares with radiation much higher than we experience here on Earth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phi for All Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 The link in the OP leads me to: Page Not Found Proxima orbits its sun every 11 days, which suggests it may be tidal locked with one side in perpetual darkness and the other baking in perpetual sunlight. If the planet has water on both sides, there could be currents that bring hot water to the cold side and cold water to the hot side, keeping it from being either a cinder or an ice cube even though it's tidally locked. Red dwarfs have enough sunlight for photosynthesis, so life is possible. I remember reading an article recently on this, but it may have been about a super-Earth sized planet that started out farther away from its sun but gained enough sized that it worked its way into a close orbit that was tidally locked. This planet may not be big enough to be covered in water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strange Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 The link in the OP leads me to: Page Not Found There is another article here: http://www.space.com/33841-living-on-proxima-b.html 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrmDoc Posted August 25, 2016 Share Posted August 25, 2016 Informative, thanks for the link. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Memammal Posted August 26, 2016 Author Share Posted August 26, 2016 Thank you for posting a new link Strange (this one is even more informative). The one I posted yesterday was from Reuters' main portal, so it was probably moved to secondary "archive" status already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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