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Alpha Centauri exoplanet by the numbers
The planet is much too hot and too close to its parent star to support life, but astronomers are optimistic about finding more Earth-like planets.

By

Tariq Malik, SPACE.com
Wed, Oct 17 2012 at 10:18 AM

Related Topics:

Research & Innovation, Science
An artist's illustration shows a planet just slightly more massive than Earth orbiting very close to Alpha Centauri B

An artist's illustration shows a planet just slightly more massive than Earth orbiting very close to Alpha Centauri B. (Image: ESA)

An alien planet discovered around a star in the Alpha Centauri system, the nearest to our own sun, has astronomers buzzing, and not just because it's the closest exoplanet to Earth ever seen.
 
The newfound extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb, it turns out, is not only the nearest alien world to Earth, it's also extremely Earthlike in size and mass. The planet is much too hot and too close to its parent star to support life, but its existence suggests the tantalizing possibility that there may be more planets waiting to be found in our neighboring star system.
 
Here's a look at the numbers behind the newfound alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb:
 
25 trillion: The number of miles Alpha Centauri Bb is from Earth. That's about 40 trillion kilometers. Sound far? It's still the closest star system to our sun.
 
3.6 million: The distance, in miles, at which the planet orbits its parent star Alpha Centauri B. This is much closer to the star than Mercury is to our sun. Earth is 93 million miles (150 million km) from the sun.
 
40,000: The approximate number of years it would take an unmanned spacecraft like NASA's Voyager 1 probe now leaving our solar system to reach Alpha Centauri Bb. You'd need a lot of snacks for that trip.
 
2,240: The likely surface temperature in Fahrenheit (it's 1,227 degrees Celsius) for planet Alpha Centauri Bb. The planet is so hot, its surface is likely melted into a molten slag, making it a truly hellish "lava world." Bring your sunscreen.
 
 
800: The lower limit for confirmed alien planets scientists have discovered since the mid-1990s. There are thousands more awaiting confirmation.
 
4.3: The number of light-years Alpha Centauri Bb is from Earth. The star system is visible only from the Southern Hemisphere of our planet. (Sorry, northern stargazers!)
 
3.2: The number of Earth days it takes planet Alpha Centauri Bb to complete one "year" around its parent star. BONUS! 3 is also the number of stars in the Alpha Centauri system. There's Alpha Centauri A and B (the new planet's sun), and Proxima Centauri, which is actually slightly closer to Earth than the other two.
 
2: The number of sunlike stars in the Alpha Centauri system. The stars Alpha Centauri A and B are both similar to our sun and. Proxima Centauri is much fainter than Earth.
 
1.13: The mass of alien planet Alpha Centauri Bb as compared to that of Earth. It is the first Earth-mass planet around a sunlike star ever found, scientists say.
 
You can follow SPACE.com Managing Editor Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik and SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+. 
 
Related on SPACE.com:
  • Images: Closest-Ever Alien Planet, the Earth-Size Alpha Centauri Bb
  • Earth-Size Planet Orbiting Nearest Star Discovered | Video
  • Alpha Centauri Stars & Planet Explained: Our Nearest Neighbors (Infographic)
 
This story was originally written for SPACE.com and was reprinted with permission here. Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved.

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wavettore
wavettore Oct 17 2012 at 2:17 PM
Contrary to what science still believes, at the time of the Big Bang there were no atoms but only waves carrying energy through the infinite Void. If we could view the Universe from outside, It would look like an egg-shaped cloud with winds running in perpetual motion inside of It. The energy is like those winds running at maximum speed and pushing out the borders of the Universe. The Universe continues to expand as the waves that travel at the border of the Universe have never encountered, nor
.... More
will ever encounter, any interference from the Void. These waves will forever expand the Space of the Universe they create and leave behind. Wave-behavior relates to the medium in which the waves travel. Thus, wave-behavior at the border of the Universe is different than wave-behavior within the Universe. Inside the Universe, waves change their frequencies by colliding with other energy during their travel. These waves, because of the encountered interference, continue to transform part of their original energy in other forms (Wavevolution). Waves travel gradually releasing heat, or amounts of energy, and their original short wavelengths, in time become longer and longer as they carry less and less energy than they did when they first started to travel. These waves lose energy releasing it in form of other waves with wavelengths longer than their own. For example, the gamma rays, over time, diminish their energy level (and their frequency) to become X rays, from X rays they will become ultraviolet and so on. The original quantum is not lost but distributed into other forms of energy through "spontaneous symmetry breaking". Once reached an almost flat longitude (and lower critical energy level) these waves solidify into hydrogen atoms breaking up their energy in opposite elements, like the split ends of a broken hair. When the hydrogen atoms are reached by the heat of other incoming waves they fuse together to create more complex forms of energy. http://www.wikinfo.org/Multilingual/index.php/Wavevolution
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