We perform long-term simulations, up to ten billion years, of closely-spaced configurations of 2 — 6 planets, each as massive as the Earth, traveling on nested orbits about either stellar […]
Alpha Centauri
Posted inAlpha Centauri, Press Release
A New Approach For Detecting Planets In The Alpha Centauri System
Yale astronomers have taken a fresh look at the nearby Alpha Centauri star system and found new ways to narrow the search for habitable planets there. According to a study […]
Posted inAlpha Centauri, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
Planet Detectability in the Alpha Centauri System
We use more than a decade of radial velocity measurements for α Cen A, B, and Proxima Centauri from HARPS, CHIRON, and UVES to identify the Msini and orbital periods […]
Posted inAlpha Centauri, Astronomy & Telescopes, Press Release
Space Telescope Designed to Directly Image the Habitable Zone of Alpha Centauri
The scientific interest in directly image and identifying Earth-like planets within the Habitable Zone (HZ) around nearby stars is driving the design of specialized direct imaging mission such as ACESAT, […]
Posted inAlpha Centauri, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Press Release
ESO Signs Agreement with Breakthrough Initiatives: VLT to Search for Planets in Alpha Centauri System
ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha […]
Posted inAtmospheres, Climate, Weather, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Press Release
Milankovitch Cycles of Terrestrial Planets in Binary Star Systems
The habitability of planets in binary star systems depends not only on the radiation environment created by the two stars, but also on the perturbations to planetary orbits and rotation […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Long-Term Stability of Planets in the α Centauri System
We evaluate the extent of the regions within the α Centauri AB star system where small planets are able to orbit for billion-year timescales, and we calculate the positions on […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets
Searching for Earth-mass planets around α Centauri
This work is part of an ongoing project which aims to detect terrestrial planets in our neighbouring star system α Centauri using the Doppler method. Owing to the small angular […]
Posted inExoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones
Search For Earth-mass Planets In The Habitable Zone Of Alpha Centauri
The “holy grail” in planet hunting is the detection of an Earth-analog: a planet with similar mass as the Earth and an orbit inside the habitable zone. If we can […]
Posted inAlpha Centauri, Education and Outreach, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Science Fiction, Societal Issues
Avatar: A Stunning New World That NASA Is Ignoring
Editor’s note: “Avatar“, a film by former NASA Advisory Committee member James Cameron, will debut across the planet on 18 December. Widely hailed as “ground breaking” the film may well […]