I thought you'd like that one. :-) On Oct 17, 2012, at 11:07 AM, [email protected] wrote:
> > See your travel agent today ! ! ! > > > > > > > > > > > W Post > > > ‘Lava planet’ orbits nearby star > > > By : Brian Vastag > > Oct 16, 2012 > > > A star nearly next door to our sun — in galactic terms — is home to a hot > little planet about the same size as Earth, scientists announced Tuesday. > > This overheated world hugs the star Alpha Centauri B, zipping around it every > three days. > > It’s the nearest so-called exoplanet yet discovered. The planet’s Earth-like > size and orbit around a sunlike star make it a “landmark discovery,” said > Stephane Udry of the University of Geneva, leader of the research team. > > “This is in our back yard,” said Gregory Laughlin, an astronomer at the > University of California at Santa Cruz and a member of a rival team also > searching the Alpha Centauri system for planets. > > Alpha Centauri B is slightly smaller, dimmer and more yellow than our sun. > The new planet, dubbed Alpha Centauri Bb, is much closer to that star than > Mercury is to our sun. > > Alpha Centauri B is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere, so the > research team studied it with instruments at the European Southern > Observatory in Chile. > > They detected the planet indirectly, by seeing Alpha Centauri B wobble at a > speed of about one mile per hour — a sign of a small planet tugging on it. > > Detecting it was tricky, requiring 450 nights of observation over four years. > > The new planet’s Earth-like mass marks it as a rocky body, not a gas planet > like Jupiter, said Xavier Dumusque, a University of Geneva astronomer and the > lead author of a paper published online in the journal Nature describing the > find. > > Dumusque said it’s likely that the planet’s surface “is not solid but more > like lava — like a ‘lava planet.’ ” > > One expert said the finding needs to be confirmed. “Only if other analyses > come to the same conclusion can we be sure that this planet exists,” > astronomer Artie Hatzes wrote in a companion article in Nature. > > Udry, in response, said there is less than one chance in 1,000 that the > discovery is a phantom of the team’s data. > > As the closest stars to our sun, some four light-years distant, the Alpha > Centauri system has long intrigued astronomers. Unlike our solar system, the > system contains three stars locked in a gravitational dance. > > In the 1990s, astronomers listened to the Alpha Centauri system for alien > radio broadcasts but heard nothing, said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at > the SETI Institute in California. Any aliens on the new planet “would have to > be devilish and enjoy hot weather,” he said, adding that the SETI (Search for > Extraterrestrial Intelligence) project will probably take another listen > across a broader range of radio channels in case other, more habitable > planets also lurk in the system. > > Since 1995, astronomers have listed 842 planets around other stars, according > to one catalogue, revealing that most stars have planets. They’ve discovered > a likely “diamond” planet, possible ocean worlds and huge, Jupiter-like > behemoths too hot to sustain any conceivable life. > > They have yet to find their biggest quarry, an “Earth 2.0” — an Earth-size > planet orbiting a sunlike star at just the right distance for liquid water. > > > -- > Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community > <[email protected]> > Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism > Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org -- Centroids: The Center of the Radical Centrist Community <[email protected]> Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/RadicalCentrism Radical Centrism website and blog: http://RadicalCentrism.org
