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Greetings everyone,
Reality approaches the GZGVerse. Yesterday there was announced an
Earth-massed planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri (
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/earth-exoplanet-alpha-centauri
/).
NOTE: Earth-*massed* does **NOT** mean Earth-sized or Earth-like! There
is a difference.
But we have a non-gas giant planet right next door to us now. What other
wonders are roaming around in that solar system?
Mk
> On 17/10/2012 21:49, Indy wrote:
Earth-*massed* does **NOT** mean Earth-sized or Earth-like! There is a
difference. Boy, is there ever! According to the article I read, the planet in
question is in a really tight orbit (smaller radius than Mercury) around
Alpha Centauri B, with a "year" of 3.6 days (!) and a surface temperature of
1200 deg. C (!!). Not exactly a vacation spot unless you are one of Doc
Smith's Cahuitans or like aliens (actually, they might find it a bit cold).
> But we have a non-gas giant planet right next door to us now. What
Who knows? Maybe there's another rocky planet at a more liveable distance that
hasn't been spotted yet. We can but hope.
It kind of surprises me that AlphaCent has any planets; SF
notwithstanding, it used to be said that multiple-star systems were less
likely to have planets due to the effects of the gravitational pull of
the various stars. That is obviously seriously out-of-date, and a good
example of how is in another exoplanet that's been found recently: it orbits a
binary pair of stars that themselves orbit a second binary pair
-- that's four "suns" in the sky, though two of them will be fairly
small.
Nonetheless, Asimov's "Nightfall" is starting to look more reasonable as
a physical situation rather than "just" one of the best SF short stories
ever written.
Phil