The Hunt for Planets Orbiting Alpha Centurai

[jimmy olsen]

Here's hoping 

http://seedmagazine.com/content/print/the_long_shot/

A clip from a long article

"I was sitting at my kitchen table when I began thinking about the possibility of detecting any habitable planets around Alpha Centauri, doing some back-of-the-envelope calculations. B in particular looked promising, because it has lower mass and it's a very calm, quiet star," Laughlin said. "I couldn't shoot it down—finding planets [in Alpha Centauri] with a low-budget project seemed alarmingly feasible."

Alpha Centauri's brightness and visibility in southern skies for 10 months each year means an observation program can proceed relatively quickly with few disruptions. Further, the two stars offer a natural calibration: An identical signal in both of them would likely indicate a flaw in the observational equipment.

Discoveries of massive, close-in planets with the RV technique come quickly—just a handful of strong periodic signals are needed. So most RV surveys, hoping to rapidly harvest the low-hanging planetary fruit, have spread themselves thinly over a large number of stars. Laughlin realized that by focusing observations on a single promising star, the signatures of smaller planets should gradually emerge. "Your signal, the mass of a planet in a given orbit, scales with the square root of the number of observations," he said. "With four times as many observations, in theory you can detect planets that are half as massive. If you're willing to average over not hundreds, but hundreds of thousands of measurements, you can probably detect planets with masses equal to or less than that of Mars"—that is, a tenth the mass of Earth.

The more Laughlin thought about it, the more foreordained Alpha Centauri appeared for such an extreme search strategy. It began to seem somehow destined. On human timescales, the stars appear fixed in the sky, but as our Sun moves through its 250-million-year orbit around the galactic center, it brings us to new neighbors. Every few hundred thousand years, the list of our nearest neighboring stars must be made anew.

"If we were plopped down at some random point in the galaxy, there's only a 1 percent chance we'd find ourselves near stars so optimal for detecting small rocky planets like our own," Laughlin said. "The hand of fate has dealt us a very interesting situation that has not existed for at least 99.9 percent of Earth's history. It's remarkable that Alpha Centauri is right next door just as humans emerge and develop the ability to make these measurements. I'm enamored with that coincidence."

[Siege]

Did he find anything?

[Neil]

Did he find anything?

I thought that the planet-finder was still getting tuned up.  And even then, they have to analyze the data.

Still, finding a planet would disprove the existance of gods, so I'm all for it.

[Razgovory]

I wonder what sorta rifle you need to hunt a planet.

[Lettow77]

Still, finding a planet would disprove the existance of gods, so I'm all for it.

Im not sure thats exactly true.

[Fireblade]

Did he find anything?

I thought that the planet-finder was still getting tuned up.  And even then, they have to analyze the data.

Still, finding a planet would disprove the existance of gods, so I'm all for it.

Um, dude..

[MadImmortalMan]

If we find one, will we name it: Chiron?

[Neil]

None of those are habitable.

[Josquius]

Would it be possible with binary stars?
I've heard that (its believed that) messes up planet formation to begin with and makes for what planets there are being very dry- the 2 suns acting as a super friendly Jupiter for each other.

[jimmy olsen]

Would it be possible with binary stars?
I've heard that (its believed that) messes up planet formation to begin with and makes for what planets the are being very dry- the 2 suns acting as a super friendly Jupiter for each other.

Read the whole article, there's extensive debate on the subject.

[Neil]

Would it be possible with binary stars?
I've heard that (its believed that) messes up planet formation to begin with and makes for what planets the are being very dry- the 2 suns acting as a super friendly Jupiter for each other.

They have found a planet orbiting a binary.  It's a lot more complex with binaries (nevermind a trinary like Alpha Centauri), but it's certainly possible.

Habitability is another matter.

[Darth Wagtaros]

We have to send robots. They will be our successor species.

[CountDeMoney]

The Event Horizon tried to get to Alpha Centauri, and we saw how that worked out.

[CountDeMoney]

Here's hoping 

Yeah, here's hoping that sometime in the future, you'd figure out how to fucking spelling correctly in your titles.  Tard.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The Event Horizon tried to get to Alpha Centauri, and we saw how that worked out.

We just have to make sure that any interdimensional portals we make don't lead to hell.