Want To Hunt For Planets? This Rare Proxima Centauri Stellar Alignment Is For You
Tuesday, June 4, 2013 - 11:20
in Astronomy & Space
In October 2014 and February 2016 Proxima Centauri, the red dwarf star nearest to our sun, passes in front of two other stars. Astronomers plotted Proxima Centauri's precise path in the heavens and predicted the two close encounters using data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, meaning two opportunities in the next few years to hunt for Earth-sized planets around it. Red dwarfs are the most common class of stars in our Milky Way galaxy. Any such star ever born is still shining today. There are about 10 red dwarfs for every star like our sun. Red dwarfs are less massive than other stars. Because lower-mass stars tend to have smaller planets, red dwarfs are ideal places to go hunting for Earth-sized planets. read more