Alpha Centauri Turns Out Not To Have a Planet After All...

[mhughes2k]

Via Slashdot: http://science.slashdot.org/story/1...t-to-have-a-planet-after-all-at-least-not-yet

In 2012, astronomers announced that the nearest star system to us, the Alpha Centauri system, possessed at least one exoplanet around it. A periodic signal that recurred just every 3.24 days was consistent with an Earth-sized exoplanet orbiting and gravitationally tugging on the second largest member of the star system: Alpha Centauri B. That planet, named Alpha Centauri Bb, turns out not to actually be there. A reanalysis of the data shows that a combination of stellar properties and the times at which the observations were made conspired to produce this spurious signal: a signal that goes away if the data is handled correctly. Accounting for everything correctly reveals something else of interest, a periodic 20-day signal, which may turn out — with better observations — to be Alpha Centauri's first exoplanet after all.

Story at http://www.forbes.com/sites/startsw...o-ours-doesnt-have-any-planets-yet-after-all/

At work so can't check out how this affects Hutton Truckers....

(Oh phew it's not Proxima Centauri)

 

[Necronaught]

They cannot possibly know, so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[Vingtetun]

Yes it does. I've been there!!!! ;-)

 

[Fen Harel]

My own impression is that the situation with respect to planets around Alpha Centauri is still somewhat fluid. Here is an article about a recent paper that suggests there is at least one.

 

[Vingtetun]

<looks out of the window at Hutton>