Re: Exoplanet around Alpha Centauri

On 17/10/2012 21:49, Indy wrote:
> Reality approaches the GZGVerse. Yesterday there was announced an
Earth-massed planet in orbit around Alpha Centauri [Snip link] NOTE:
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
other wonders are roaming around in that solar system?
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 That is obviously seriously out-of-date, and a good 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