How would an Earth-like planet look in Alpha Centauri?

Artist's impression of what an Earth-like planet might look like in a nearby star system.

Enlarge / Artist’s impression of what an Earth-like planet may seem like in a close-by star system. (credit score: ESO/L. Calçada)

We now know that our nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, is host to a minimum of two planets. However we’re undecided if there are any planets close to Alpha Centauri, a binary system simply past that. If there are, nonetheless, we now know what they could seem like. New analysis has used modeling and spectroscopic information of the system’s two stars to estimate what a rocky planet within the system’s liveable zone may be fabricated from.

To estimate the composition of this hypothetical planet—dubbed α-Cen-Earth—the staff developed what they name a devolatilization mannequin. To start out, they appeared on the quantities of risky (hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and so on.) and non-volatile components (like iron and silicon) within the Solar and the Earth and checked out how they differed.

Armed with this information, the staff then checked out high-resolution spectroscopy information concerning the components within the α Centauri A and α Centauri B stars—which supplied them details about 22 components. From their mannequin and this information, they might estimate potential compositions of a hypothetical rocky planet within the system’s liveable zone. “You get a mannequin of the chemical composition of rocky planets that may be within the liveable zone,” Charley Lineweaver, one of many paper’s authors, instructed Ars.

Learn 5 remaining paragraphs | Feedback

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *