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Earth-like planet spotted orbiting Sun's closest star
Astronomers have discovered a third planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the star closest to the Sun. Dubbed Proxima Centauri d, the newly spotted world is probably a bit smaller than Earth, and well within the habitable zone of its host star — meaning that it could have oceans of liquid water that can potentially harbour life.
"It's showing that the nearest star probably has a very rich planetary system," says Guillem Anglada-Escudé, an astronomer at the Institute for Space Sciences in Barcelona, Spain, who led the team that in 2016 discovered the first planet to be seen orbiting Proxima Centauri.
Astronomer João Faria and his collaborators detected Proxima Centauri d by measuring tiny shifts in the spectrum of the star's light as the planet's gravity pulled it during orbit. The team used a state-of-the art spectrograph called ESPRESSO at the Very Large Telescope, a system of four 8.2-metre telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Cerro Paranal, Chile. The results were published on 10 February in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
A candidate short-period sub-Earth orbiting Proxima Centauri
We detect a signal at 5.12 ± 0.04 days with a semi-amplitude of 39 ± 7 cm s−1. The analysis of subsets of the ESPRESSO data, the activity indicators, and chromatic RVs suggest that this signal is not caused by stellar variability but instead by a planetary companion with a minimum mass of 0.26 ± 0.05 M⊕ (about twice the mass of Mars) orbiting at 0.029 au from the star. The orbital eccentricity is well constrained and compatible with a circular orbit.
Previously: "Earth-Like" Exoplanet Found in Habitable Zone of Proxima Centauri
ESO Confirms Reports of Proxima Centauri Exoplanet
Dust Belts and Possible Additional Exoplanet Spotted Around Proxima Centauri
Icy second planet potentially spotted orbiting Proxima Centauri
Proxima Centauri b Confirmed Using VLT's ESPRESSO, Possible Third Exoplanet Found in System
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 11 2022, @01:19PM (4 children)
Fiddling with the data until you see what you're hoping to see is exactly what led astronomers to see canals on Mars, which they saw as proof of an advanced civilization (or at least one at the level of Italians).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 11 2022, @01:31PM (3 children)
Supposedly this star now has 2 planets that are 10x closer than mercury to the sun. I doubt it.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 11 2022, @02:05PM (1 child)
You are so much smarter and more educated than all the astronomers and astrophysicists working on this. I blindly trust your judgement.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday February 11 2022, @06:20PM
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday February 14 2022, @03:15PM
Ah, you drooled on the internet; sorry, that doesn't count.
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