planets around alpha centauri-B?

[Mike70]

some recent computer modeling strongly suggests just that. it also strongly indicates that small, terrestrial planets could have formed in alpha centauri-B's habitable zone.

alpha centauri-B is the slighty smaller companion to alpha centauri-A and is part of the triple star system that includes proxima centauri. it is the closest system to ours at about 4.5 light years. a 5 year project is getting underway to study alpha centauri-B to determine if what the computer models indicate is actually what is there.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0803/29earthlike/

[Neil]

some recent computer modeling strongly suggests just that. it also strongly indicates that small, terrestrial planets could have formed in alpha centauri-B's habitable zone.

alpha centauri-B is the slighty smaller companion to alpha centauri-A and is part of the triple star system that includes proxima centauri. it is the closest system to ours at about 4.5 light years. a 5 year project is getting underway to study alpha centauri-B to determine if what the computer models indicate is actually what is there.

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0803/29earthlike/

In many ways this is heart-breaking... All these new worlds which we will never get to see, and more importantly find out if life is actually wandering around on them :(

[Legion2213]

In many ways this is heart-breaking... All these new worlds which we will never get to see, and more importantly find out if life is actually wandering around on them :(

Depressing, but entirely true. :(

People say that America is responsible for most of the bad stuff that goes on in the world today, I say their greatest crime is not continuing on from the moon, immagine the progress they could've made by now if they'd kept up the momentum!

[Neil]

Depressing, but entirely true. :(

People say that America is responsible for most of the bad stuff that goes on in the world today, I say their greatest crime is not continuing on from the moon, immagine the progress they could've made by now if they'd kept up the momentum!

As I've said before... Imagine if half the money we'd spend on bombing the cr** out of each other had instead been spent on space...

[Dommm]

In many ways this is heart-breaking... All these new worlds which we will never get to see, and more importantly find out if life is actually wandering around on them :(

I agree you hear about all these wonderful discoveries and realise that I in my lifetime will probably never get to see the fruit of these labours ahhh... well

[Mike70]

actually guys check out the article if there are terrestrial sized planets around Alpha Centauri -B, they can be detected and their atomspheres determined through spectronomy.


"If they exist, we can observe them," said Guedes, who is the first author of a paper describing the new findings. The paper has been accepted for publication by the Astrophysical Journal.


Detecting small, rocky planets the size of Earth is challenging, however, because they induce a relatively small wobble in their host stars. According to Laughlin, five years of observations using a dedicated telescope would be needed to detect an Earth-like planet around Alpha Centauri B.



that "dedicated telescope" is the one at the inter-american observatory in chile. the project is getting under way shortly.


As I've said before... Imagine if half the money we'd spend on bombing the cr** out of each other had instead been spent on space...

a-frakin-men. if this country spent half the money and half the time it does on warfare in funding space research/exploration who knows what we could acheive.

[Neil]

a-frakin-men. if this country spent half the money and half the time it does on warfare in funding space research/exploration who knows what we could acheive.

I always remember seeing Carl Sagan on a chat show (about 25yrs ago). He was talking about how it was difficult to find funding in the US for a mission to Haleys Comet (1986).

He said the cost of such a mission would equate to one B52, and congress had given the go-ahead to purchase 100 B52 bombers at the time, of course only building 99 would compromise national security!!

I still remember him saying this to this day!

[Mike70]

I always remember seeing Carl Sagan on a chat show (about 25yrs ago). He was talking about how it was difficult to find funding in the US for a mission to Haleys Comet (1986).

He said the cost of such a mission would equate to one B52, and congress had given the go-ahead to purchase 100 B52 bombers at the time, of course only building 99 would compromise national security!!

I still remember him saying this to this day!
i remember that too. old carl was a sad, sad loss.

i meant to put this up before but forgot. it is a comparison in size between the sun and Alpha Centauri A & B

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png/800px-Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png

[MikePizzoff]

People say that America is responsible for most of the bad stuff that goes on in the world today, I say their greatest crime is not continuing on from the moon, immagine the progress they could've made by now if they'd kept up the momentum!

Q: How come there is no picture of Earth from the Moon?

A: Because you can't take a picture of Earth when you're inside of a dome in the middle of the desert on Earth.

[Rottedfreak]

We dont know if americans even got to the moon at all thanks to Capricorn One.

We can't blame Americans for all the worlds problems, it's a small truth that people are self destructive.


We should be looking for a saturn sized metal world around the vicinity of alpha centauri....

[Neil]

Q: How come there is no picture of Earth from the Moon?

A: Because you can't take a picture of Earth when you're inside of a dome in the middle of the desert on Earth.

Can we have a public vote that anyone who spouts this sort of ill-thought and ill-researched nonsense gets a forum title befitting it?


i remember that too. old carl was a sad, sad loss.

i meant to put this up before but forgot. it is a comparison in size between the sun and Alpha Centauri A & B

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png/800px-Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png

Cosmos was such a fantastic series! I was already interested in physics so that series really interested me!

One of my college computing projects was to write some software for our schools (& this is on crappy 1980s computers). Everyone wrote your typical filing program of some sort. I wrote a Graphic Gravity Simulator where you could enter in upto 10 objects with their masses, positions and vectors and then watch gravity (in 2D mind) at work.

I had great fun taking the basic formulas for gravitational attraction and streamlining them across 10 objects affecting each other over a definable time period. ie: You could watch it on a second by second basic, or in say hour long steps...

It was great little program even with a nice GUI interface I designed... I didn't get a very good score. I just don't think the teachers could even understood it, yet along grade it :(


What's interesting about your image is how similar they are in size to the sun!

[capncnut]

Q: How come there is no picture of Earth from the Moon?

A: Because you can't take a picture of Earth when you're inside of a dome in the middle of the desert on Earth.
Can we have a public vote that anyone who spouts this sort of ill-thought and ill-researched nonsense gets a forum title befitting it?
I would like to point out that this 'ill-thought and ill-researched nonsense' was originally spouted by scientific people, some of whom may have worked for NASA. Not saying it's true, just saying...


Cosmos was such a fantastic series! I was already interested in physics so that series really interested me!
I grew up watching that programme, got the region one 7 disc DVD box set. :)

[Neil]

...originally spouted by scientific people, some of whom may have worked for NASA.

You sure?

I have never seen a single piece of 'evidence' that cannot be explained. ie: Nothing questioning the lunar landings seems to hold any water...

[MikePizzoff]

I was just tryin to ruffle your feathers, Neil. :p

[Neil]

I was just tryin to ruffle your feathers, Neil. :p

I don't have feathers.... Just scales :evil:

[capncnut]

You sure?

I have never seen a single piece of 'evidence' that cannot be explained. ie: Nothing questioning the lunar landings seems to hold any water...
Yeah, on the Channel 4 documentary there are a whole load of scientists who totally believe that man didn't land on the moon. When someone from NASA was contacted for an interview, the guy was struggling to answer the questions that the interviewer was asking. Kept responding like a Scientologist and saying 'I don't see how thats relevant' when it obviously was.

As for me, I just sit on the fence with it. I see fair points on both sides.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/17/Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png/800px-Alpha_Centauri_relative_sizes.png
I kinda think the bigger guys might have more chance of holding life, when you think of how big each system must be.

http://www.mariewinn.com/marieblog/uploaded_images/Scale-Model-Arcturus-Sun-703559.jpg

[Mike70]

I was just tryin to ruffle your feathers, Neil. :p

this has to be the first time in the history of this board that i've gotten a joke that neil hasn't.:D



I kinda think the bigger guys might have more chance of holding life, when you think of how big each system must be.

http://www.mariewinn.com/marieblog/uploaded_images/Scale-Model-Arcturus-Sun-703559.jpg

only problem with really large star harboring life bearing planets is that the larger a star is the shorter its life span.

stars around the sun's mass live for about 10-12 billion years.

stars around 80% of the suns mass can live for 10's of billions of years.

really large stars (like blue giants -eta carinae comes to mind) can burn themselves up in around 50 million years or so.

some really large stars (like betelgeuse) are already approaching the end of their lives, having started out as stars about the size of the sun that have transitioned to the red giant stage.


i am going to ask (as the thread author) that we not turn this thread into a moon hoax thread. please.

[Neil]

this has to be the first time in the history of this board that i've gotten a joke that neil hasn't.:D

Nooooooo!! :annoyed:

[mista_mo]

you guys are fools.

Space doesn't exist, it's just the inside of Gods ass we see, the "stars" are his hemoroids.

Read the bible if you want answers to science. Jesus.