Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Discovered a planet similar to Earth. “Maybe there is a little cooler” – Radio For You

– Proxima Centauri is such a star, which is much weaker than the sun is cooler and therefore most of the energy it emits in the infrared. This follows from the fact that it is eight times less massive than the sun. For the stars is a strong relationship between the mass and brightness. Proxima Centauri, if porównywalibyśmy with the Sun, is 10 thousand. times darker – said dr. Marcin Kiraga of Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory.

The researchers found that around Proxima Centauri, the star closest located to the solar system, circling the rocky planet slightly larger than Earth and is zoned to the existence of its the water in liquid state. The discovery reported in an article in the latest issue of the journal “Nature” team of astronomers under the direction of Guillem Anglada-Escude.

Red Dwarf

The distance separating the planet, which received the name of the Proxima b from its star is much less than the distance from Earth to the Sun (149 million km). However, Proxima Centauri is called. red dwarf, which is much smaller, darker and cooler than the sun. This means that the planet can circulate much closer to the star, and still on its surface may prevail mild conditions similar to the Earth. – Proxima Centauri is roughly almost 300 thousand. times farther from the Sun than the Earth. This is more than four light-years. As for the scale of interstellar, is Proxima Centauri is really close – Kiraga explained.

Properties

The astronomer told about the properties of stars. – Proxima Centauri is such a star, which is much weaker than that of the sun, is cooler and therefore most of the energy emitted in the infrared. This follows from the fact that it is eight times less massive than the sun. For the stars is a strong relationship between the mass and brightness. Proxima Centauri, if porównywalibyśmy with the Sun, is 10 thousand. times fainter – I told the scientist. – If in our sky instead of the sun was Proxima, it would be seven times smaller than the Moon. The glow would not have been so sharp as the sun. You could probably look at it with the naked eye. However, in the whole range of electromagnetic energy Proxima an average of 600 times less radiation than the sun. It would be darker and colder – he explained.

Can life exist?

The scientist compared the Proxima Centauri and Proxima b to the Earth and the sun. – the orbital period of Proxima b is about 11 days (circulation around the star – the day within the meaning of the earth), this is one of those certain size. The planet is much closer Proxima, than the Earth from the sun. This is important because a star is much weaker. Proxima b is about 20 times closer to its parent star. In this case, there is also sought by many astronomers property, namely the amount of energy that reaches the planet – is comparable to that which reaches from the Sun to the Earth. It is possible that there is a little cooler. The problem is that due to the small distance interaction of tidal Proxima probably means that it is constantly facing the same side facing the star. One side is constantly exposed to light and the other is in constant darkness. It is not known whether there is atmosphere. Therefore, we do not know which prevail on this planet conditions – said the scientist.

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