Proxima Centauri b (also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb) is an exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of a triple star system. It is located about 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs, 40 trillion km, or 25 trillion miles) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, making it the closest known exoplanet to the Solar System.
Proxima Centauri b orbits the star at a distance of roughly 0.05 AU (7,500,000 km; 4,600,000 mi) with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days, and has an estimated mass of at least 1.3 times that of the Earth. Its habitability has not been established, though it is unlikely to be habitable since the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2,000 times those experienced by Earth from the solar wind
A team of scientists think they can image Proxima Centauri b and probe the planet's atmosphere for signs of oxygen, water vapor, and methane, combining ESPRESSO and SPHERE on the VLT. The James Webb Space Telescope may be able to characterize the atmosphere of Proxima Centauri b, but there is no conclusive evidence for transits combining MOST and HATSouth photometry, giving it less than a 1 percent chance of being a transiting planet. Future telescopes (the Extremely Large Telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope, and the Thirty Meter Telescope) could have the capability to characterize Proxima Centauri b.
The discovery of Proxima b was significant to Breakthrough Starshot, a proof of concept project aiming to send a fleet of miniature probes to the Alpha Centauri system. The project is led by research company Breakthrough Initiatives, and plans to develop and launch a fleet of miniature unmanned spacecraft called StarChips, which could travel at up to 20% of the speed of light, arriving at the system in roughly 20 years with notification reaching Earth a little over 4 years later.
the question is when, not how. right?
and can human travel that far?
and if there's alien life form, will they be more advance than earthlings?
and will god be present on that planet?
what do you think?
(edit, added a little)
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the question is when, not how. right?
- 20% the speed of light is a lot, A LOT faster than we been able to make spacecraft go. A google search shows current fastest is 36,000 mph. Speed of light in mph is 670,616,000. 20 percent of that is still 134 million miles per hour. So the spacecraft would have to go 4000 times faster than our current spacecraft speed record. (That is like comparing a slug's travel speed to a jet airliner) Even a really good slingshot around our sun would not get anywhere near those speeds. But hey, if human civilization does not collapse in the next 100 years and scientific advancement continues at the rate it is, I could see the tech possibly being developed. Plus a signal strong enough to travel 4+ light years and actually send usable data back to us? Actually probably a lot more plausible, a large satellite dish in space pointed directly at alpha centauri may be able to pick up a concentrated data burst operating off the spacecraft in orbit around the planet.
and can human travel that far?
- Nope. At least not alive. We could perhaps store frozen fertilized eggs and sperm, machinery to raise humans from birth and educate them. "cryo sleep" is a sci fantasy. Unfortunately we are mostly water and water has this unfortunate property of expanding when going solid (frozen.)
will they be more advanced than earthlings?
- I assume you mean alien life on this alpha centauri planet more advanced than humans? extremly, extremly unlikely. Think of it in terms of years on this planet, if you were to visit this planet at any random time in the history of the planet, the odds are extremely low you would find intelligent human life on it.
and will god be present on that planet?
- Of course not. Even on the extremely remote chance that there is intelligent life on that planet, if they were indeed in that phase where they believed in gods, they would most certainly believe in different gods, that looked more like them.
what do you think?
-It is a nice fantasy, I find it quite unlikely humans will colonize anything outside our own solar system. We have not even yet colonized the moon, and that is in our backyard comparatively speaking. If humans achieve immortality by digitizing ourselves and sending copies of ourselves out into space, then yes, in a way we could visit other planets but is it really visiting? Certainly not by today's standards it is not.
This is a wonderful topic to speculate on, and the best thing is that this scientific discipline is just starting up. The good side is that in the next few years our understanding on such planets is just beginning, the down side is that any expeditions will probably lag because with so much new data, any decision for an expedition may be delayed.
The COROT satellite yielded some results, and the following satellite Kepler really got things going, finding 2,000 plus (so far) potential exoplanets. But just last month, on 18th of April, TESS was launched. Godzilla has arrived, and this dedicated monster planet hunter will open up a huge can of whoop ass when it comes to the search for exoplanets. TESS is currently in transit to it's final orbital position, and once it starts doing it's job, IMO it will yield a huge impact, in the same manner Hubble did for optical astronomy.
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/nasa-s-new-planet-hunter-snaps...
Will we find life on Proxima Centauri b? For many this question implies "will we find Klingons or Vulcans"? But the realistic expectation is that if life is found, it will be exceptionally simple, small, and primitive organisms, barely qualifying being defined as cells.
Personally, I have always been fascinated by this topic, and with the advent of the internet, I struck gold. There is a community of scientists (yes, not dilettantes) who stream lectures and interact with people like you and I.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IJIQ9pphRKa_qYXtmh5DQY77X8SE2uigkjl_...
For this topic, I will attempt to get some answers from Dr Pamela Gay of Cosmoquest.
Many of these people can be found regularly streaming in Twitch, and belong to Brainbytes.
https://www.twitch.tv/team/brainbytes
Space is certainly a topic that captures the imagination, but if I was a level-headed robot with a hundred year lifespan, travel to the next galaxy would be such a remote prospect that I would consider it of very little importance to my life.
I certainly expect humans will indeed achieve the feat someday. But as far as members here are concerned, we are unlikely to be travelling in corporeal form beyond the planets of this solar system.
No the question is still "HOW" Haven't you heard. NASA has never been out of low earth orbit. We don't even know how to get to the moon. The moon landings were all faked.
What does NASA say "We can not get out of low earth orbit." "We have never been through the Van Allen Radiation belts. (50) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O5dPsu66Kw
Fake International Space station: (Okay the flat earth guys got hold of this one but it has been on the internet for a while. Watch the astronaut grab the wire.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWCYqd04QTg
Start this one at 5:35, I can't find the isolated videos any more. All the nut jobs are commenting on them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3TE0CAXq_k
Everything we see is questionable.
I disagree Cognostic. You can see the International Space Station from earth. Man has been to the moon too.
Fake quotes are fake (those quotes do not appear in that video).
Did you know that in academia, faking a quote is considered plagiarism (academic dishonesty)?