Topic: Earth sized planet found in Proxima Centauri habitable zone. (Read 3865 times)

knightstorm · « **on:** August 25, 2016, 01:41:49 pm »

I'm really surprised this hasn't been posted already.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/earth-mass-planet-proxima-centauri-habitable-space-science/

Brush Wolf · « **Reply #1 on:** August 25, 2016, 07:58:01 pm »

Now why do I have this image in my head?

FPF-Tobin Dax · « **Reply #2 on:** August 26, 2016, 05:27:42 pm »

Habitable zone is a bit misleading. The star is volatile and the planet tidal locked.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/planet-proxima-centauri-life-glowing-corals-radiation-space-science/

http://www.space.com/33841-living-on-proxima-b.html

TAnimaL · « **Reply #3 on:** September 01, 2016, 10:29:03 am »

I hadn't heard about it being tidally locked yet, thanks.

Still, nice to know we have new neighbor, even if it's a fixer-upper

Brush Wolf · « **Reply #4 on:** September 01, 2016, 01:14:42 pm »

Quote from: FPF-Tobin Dax on August 26, 2016, 05:27:42 pm

Habitable zone is a bit misleading. The star is volatile and the planet tidal locked.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/planet-proxima-centauri-life-glowing-corals-radiation-space-science/

http://www.space.com/33841-living-on-proxima-b.html

Tidally locked wouldn't rule out at least part of the planet being habitable. The volatility though would be a giant issue.

knightstorm · « **Reply #5 on:** September 03, 2016, 02:11:53 pm »

I read that they weren't certain it was tidal locked, but it's likely. As for the volitility, a strong ebough magnetic field might compensate for that. Basically, the chances are slim, but I'm going to be optimistic on this.

Nemesis · « **Reply #6 on:** October 19, 2016, 01:48:37 pm »

In addition to tidal locking in the habitable zone the zone is very narrow. It takes relatively little to perturb a planet into or out of the zone. The odds of a planet staying in it long enough to develop advanced life is low.

Panzergranate · « **Reply #7 on:** October 28, 2016, 04:27:28 pm »

Oh well if it turns out to be a dead world there's another 21 other stars within a 12 light year radius of Sol (our own Sun) that might be better bets.

Barnard's star (6 light years) might be a better bet.

And in the distant future when the human race has figured out a viable warp drive and travelled to these local stars, whilst other nations will send scientists, the French will be sending teams of chefs to discover new life forms and create new recipes to cook them with.

Nemesis · « **Reply #8 on:** October 28, 2016, 07:48:01 pm »

Even primitive life can be enough to give it an oxygen content high enough for us. Then terraforming can be relatively easy. Just not having advanced life doesn't mean a dead world. It could also be a lucky world that in spite of everything did stay in the habitable zone long enough for advanced life. If I recall correctly Barnards is another red dwarf star with the same problems for advanced life.

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