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Credit & Copyright: European Southern Observatory,
L. Calçada,
N. Risinger (skysurvey.org)
Explanation:
Located just next door,
Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to the Sun.
A view from our
interstellar neighbor
a mere 4.3 light-years away is shown in this illustration.
The Sun is at
the upper right, a bright star against the background of the Milky Way.
The cresent in the foreground is an artist's rendering of a planet
now reported orbiting
Alpha Centauri B, making it the closest known
exoplanet.
Discovered by astronomer
Xavier Dumusque et al. using the
planet hunting HARPS
instrument to measure minute shifts in the star's spectrum for
more than four years, the planet has approximately the same mass as Earth.
But it orbits once every 3.2 days, about 0.04 times the Earth-Sun distance
from its parent star.
That puts it well outside
the habitable zone,
much too close to Alpha Cen B, a star only a little cooler
than the Sun.
Still, estimates indicate that planetary orbits would be stable
within the habitable zone of Alpha Cen B, at about half the Earth-Sun
distance ...
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: extrasolar planet
Publications with words: extrasolar planet
See also:
- APOD: 2024 July 8 Á Exoplanet Zoo: Other Stars
- Temperatures on Exoplanet WASP 43b
- Epsilon Tauri: Star with Planet
- APOD: 2023 October 17 Á PDS 70: Disk, Planets, and Moons
- APOD: 2023 September 20 Á Methane Discovered on Distant Exoplanet
- APOD: 2023 June 6 Á Star Eats Planet
- APOD: 2023 February 1 Á The Seventh World of Trappist 1