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Earth-like Exoplanets In The Alpha Centauri System

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Topic(s): space
2008-03-03 01:49:49 US/Pacific

 Last week, Greg Laughlin's team at UC-Santa Cruz submitted a fascinating paper. The title is Formation and Detectability of Terrestrial Planets around Alpha Centauri B.

For those not so into astronomy, the Alpha Centauri star system contains the nearest stars to Earth other than Earth's own sun. But while Earth's sun is seven light minutes distant from Earth (itself an immense distance), the stars within the Alpha Centauri star system are a little over four light years distant from Earth.

That great distance notwithstanding, four light years is a distance that allows astronomers and science types in general to have some excitement about. We can imagine some time when four light years isn't such an unachievable distance. But what's out there at Alpha Centauri to be excited about?

Alpha Centauri is a triple star system. The three stars are named A, B, and Proxima. The aforementioned paper from Greg Laughlin's team makes the case that there's almost a 100% chance that Beta harbors at least one Earth-size planet at a distance from B that allows for the possibility of liquid water on its surface.

What's better, the paper claims that our current technological capacities and methods are almost certainly capable of detecting these planets. The paper claims a confident chance of detecting one such planet with three years of observations, and a confident chance of detecting two or three such planets with five years of observations.

The catch is when we might expect the observations to begin. Sadly, at the present time, there is no set date. Thus the expected announcement date is indefinitely paused at three years.



Pulled eFingers:

Ngan — 2008-03-04 17:31:16 US/Pacific —
uhh....I'm waiting for more of Mallory's pictures.
Stacey — 2008-03-06 16:59:09 US/Pacific —
Hope you don't have to wait 4 light years...

One thing about the search for other life in the Universe that bothers me is that it seems like science is assuming that any of that life would be like us in some very basic way. What if another civilization exists that doesn't need water or oxygen, and is not carbon-based?

I think about that a lot when I hear about advances in space exploration and observation.
Eric — 2008-03-07 01:57:16 US/Pacific —
One thing about the search for other life in the Universe that bothers me is that it seems like science is assuming that any of that life would be like us in some very basic way.
Yeah, that bothers me too. I think maybe those scientists try to appeal to a broader audience who don't have much imagination.

The scientists you hear about only when you're pretty devoted to this stuff are very aware that the first life we find outside our solar system will almost certainly be very, very different from anything we imagine.

In the case of Alpha Centauri B, it's awesome that it might have water because someday not too far out we might be living there.
steve — 2008-03-08 01:32:16 US/Pacific —
"The first life we find outside our solar system will almost certainly be very, very different from anything we imagine."

Eric, I hate to disagree with you, but your statement is contrary to everything that Star Trek teaches us. Most aliens will be bipeds, about the same height and weight as humans. They will speak English. Essentially, they will be just like humans, except they may have big ears, or strange wrinkles which appear to serve no purpose.

Try to get your facts right before you go spouting off next time. Picard would not be happy.
Eric — 2008-03-09 19:01:38 US/Pacific —
Heh. That reminds me. A few years back, I was in the audience for a presentation given by Seth Shostak of the SETI institute here in Mountain View. He went on for a few minutes about how different alien life would be and how we wouldn't even recognize it when we finally found it.

Then he asked, "what will this alien life look like?"

He flipped to the next slide in his PowerPoint, and it was a picture of Spock. Everybody laughed.



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