Proxima b 'may well' harbour life

[Recon-UK]

I want to live on Proxima B, not only is that a damn cool name, it's got no human life

 

[Nuckles56]

I want to live on Proxima B, not only is that a damn cool name, it's got no human life

Until we get there

 

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Thought Café videos

 

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Breakthrough Listen: Parkes Radio Telescope Turns to Proxima b

Parkes radio telescope is a 64-m parabolic dish operated by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO).

"The addition of Parkes is an important milestone", said Internet entrepreneur Yuri Milner, founder of the Breakthrough Initiatives.

"These major instruments are the ears of planet Earth, and now they are listening for signs of other civilizations".

After two weeks of commissioning and test observations, 'first light' for Breakthrough Listen at Parkes was achieved this week with an observation of Proxima b.

"The chances of any particular planet hosting intelligent life-forms are probably minuscule", said BSRC director Dr. Andrew Siemion.

"But once we knew there was a planet right next door, we had to ask the question, and it was a fitting first observation for Parkes".

"To find a civilization just 4.23 ly away would change everything".

 

[Drone]

New theory:

The astronomers speculate that the planet may have formed around Proxima Centauri on a more extended orbit and then been brought to its current position, very close to its parent star, as a result of the close passage of Proxima Centauri to its cousins in the Alpha Centauri pair. Alternatively, the planet may have formed around the Alpha Centauri pair, and was later captured by the gravity of Proxima Centauri. If one of these hypotheses is correct, it is possible that the planet was once an icy world that underwent a meltdown and now has liquid water on its surface.

 

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Full braking at Alpha Centauri
Space travel visionaries solve the problem of interstellar slowdown at our stellar neighbour