[LINK] "Alpha Centauri B b"
Oct. 17th, 2012 11:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldWill Baird at The Dragon's Tales, in his own linkage about Alpha Centauri Bb, pointed me to astronomer Greg Laughlin's analysis of the whole situation--planet, star, technology--at his blog systemic.
It's very thorough. For starters, Laughlin notes that it might be possible to see Bb eclipse its sun.
He later goes into greater detail about the situation, covering everything from the stellar weather of Alpha Centauri B to the way B's changing velocity was measured to exacting detail. One thing Laughlin notes is worth sharing: if Venus, in its current orbit, circled the dimmer Alpha Centauri B, it would be squarely in the middle of B's habitable zone and could plausibly support an Earth-like climate. The current data certainly doesn't exclude this possibility.
It's very thorough. For starters, Laughlin notes that it might be possible to see Bb eclipse its sun.
Alpha Cen B has a radius about 90% as large as the Sun. This means that transits, if they occur, would have a maximum photometric depth of ~0.01%, and would last up to three hours. These numbers make for a challenging, but by no means impossible, detection. HST (perhaps using the FGS instrument) should be able to reach a transit of this depth, and given that the phase, the depth, and the period are known in advance, I think that a purpose-engineered ground-based solution can be made to work as well. For example, see this post on orthogonal transfer arrays — Alpha Cen B delivers almost 5 megawatts to the Earth, and Alpha Cen A is a nice comparison star right next door.
He later goes into greater detail about the situation, covering everything from the stellar weather of Alpha Centauri B to the way B's changing velocity was measured to exacting detail. One thing Laughlin notes is worth sharing: if Venus, in its current orbit, circled the dimmer Alpha Centauri B, it would be squarely in the middle of B's habitable zone and could plausibly support an Earth-like climate. The current data certainly doesn't exclude this possibility.
