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Alpha Centauri Has an Earth-Sized Planet

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-wonder-if-they-have-oil dept.

The Bad Astronomer writes "Astronomers have announced that the nearest star system in the sky — Alpha Centauri — has an Earth-sized planet orbiting one of its stars. Alpha Cen is technically a three-star system: a binary composed of two stars very much like the Sun, orbited by a third, a red dwarf, much farther out. Using the Doppler technique (looking for very small changes in the velocities of the stars) astronomers detected a planet orbiting the smaller of the two stars in the binary, Alpha Centauri B. The planet has a mass only 1.13 times that of the Earth, making it one of the smallest yet detected.However, it orbits the star only 6 million kilometers out, so it's far too hot to be habitable. The signal from the planet is extremely weak but solidly detected (PDF), giving astronomers even greater hope of being able to find an Earth-like planet orbiting a star in its habitable zone."

7 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. That sounds really cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Let's use that as a setting for a sci fi movie and waste it on contortionist zombies and scientists who act like complete douchebag morons. Awesome.

    1. Re:That sounds really cool by jamstar7 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's use that as a setting for a sci fi movie and waste it on contortionist zombies and scientists who act like complete douchebag morons. Awesome.

      Seriously, dood, you gotta stop writing for SyFy Channel.

      --
      Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
    2. Re:That sounds really cool by MachDelta · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sounds good. Let's call it... Chiron. Or maybe Manifold 6?
      Ooh, ooh, is it going to have telepathic worms?

    3. Re:That sounds really cool by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      We should send seven leaders, who can't agree on anything, on a spaceship to go visit and check the place out.

    4. Re:That sounds really cool by pellik · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's use that as a setting for a sci fi movie and waste it on contortionist zombies and scientists who act like complete douchebag morons. Awesome.

      Seriously, dood, you gotta stop writing for SyFy Channel.

      I don't get it. What does his comment have to do with wrestling?

  2. Apparently there's a message there... by Gort65 · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...for us about some space bypass or something. Seems important for some reason.

  3. Re:Heil Sid Meier by cashman73 · · Score: 4, Funny

    We better get moving! It's already 2012 and the game ends in 2050!