Nearby Exoplanets |
Nearby Exoplanets |
Nov 15 2017, 04:17 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
There have been a few topics in recent years pertaining to exoplanets found circling nearby red dwarfs, particularly Proxima Centauri and Trappist-1. There's a new one to report, and I thought I'd give the topic a more general scope rather than specific to this one.
The star in question is Ross 128, and the planet's solar flux is between that of Earth and Venus. There's a good chance that this is potentially the most "habitable" exoplanet yet found, and is happily quite close (13th closest system), so that telescopes will be able to separate the light of the planet from that of the star. This is a circumstance that only a few nearby stars will permit in the foreseeable future, so Ross 128 is likely to figure large in our exoplanet studies over the next century. https://www.eso.org/public/archives/release...36/eso1736a.pdf |
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Dec 23 2020, 10:19 PM
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2530 Joined: 20-April 05 Member No.: 321 |
We obviously have not yet begun to learn about the climates or geology of terrestrial exoplanets or super-earths. Here's a paper suggesting that Proxima Centauri c might just be more earthlike than some of the "earthlike" terrestrial exoplanets orbiting red dwarfs.
http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/super-ea...ment-09106.html It seems to me that when one factor might make a planet relatively less earthlike, there is the possibility that another factor could make up for that, meaning that we might find some earthlike climates out there where the planet's physical parameters different from Earth's in two offsetting ways. For example, a harsh stellar wind that would strip away an atmosphere might be compensated for on a planet with higher escape velocity. Or, a planet with a strong greenhouse effect might end up with earthlike temperatures if it gets much less heat from its star. It will be a while before we find out, but Proxima c might well be the first place for which we get the answers – it's the closest super-earth we'll ever find. |
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