Hello everybody! Today, I will share with you some spectacular news!
I know I'm a bit late for this, but... anyway. Last week, astronomers were able to confirm the existence of a planet orbiting the closest star to the Sun, Proxima Centauri!
Proxima Centauri was discovered in 1915 and is a red dwarf with about one tenth the mass of the Sun. It's roughly 4.25 light-years away, which makes it the closest star to the Sun! It is fairly faint, and would possibly be visible with the naked eye... if not for Alpha Centauri. Together, the two stars (α Cen A & α Cen B) form the tird-brightest star in the night sky, outshining Proxima Centauri by miles.
But that's not the focus of today's blog post or last Wednesday's announcement. The focus is the new planet! Proxima Centauri b (or Proxima b) orbits within the habitable zone of its parent star, meaning liquid water could theoretically exist on the surface. All tat remains to be seen is if it has an atmosphere; if not, there won't be any water.
On the topic of atmospheres, it is also predicted for Proxima b to have similar temperatures to Earth, as long as it has a similar atmosphere to Earth's.
It is predicted to never get brighter than twilight on Proxima b's surface... but it receives 400 times more X-rays than Earth does. Nasty!
And for the last detail (it isn't really a detail, but still), it is planned to send gram-weight spacecraft to proxima Centauri and maybe do a flyby of Proxima b. It would take 20-30 years to get there and then another four to notify Earth of a flyby, and maybe send back pictures.
Anyway, I'll see you all next week. So for now, I say bye!