An Earth-mass planet orbiting alpha Centauri B

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

Dumusque, X (Author) Other; Pepe, F (Author) Other; Lovis, C (Author) Other; Segransan, D (Author) Other; Sahlmann, J (Author) Other; Benz, W (Author) Other; Bouchy, F (Author) Other; Mayor, M (Author) Other; Queloz, D (Author) Other; N.C. Santos (Author) FCUP; Udry, S (Author) Other

Journal

Title: Nature

Vol. 491

Pages: 207-211

ISSN: 0028-0836

Publisher: Springer Nature

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 300 Citations

Scopus - 316 Citations

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-3F9

DOI: 10.1038/nature11572

Abstract (EN): Exoplanets down to the size of Earth have been found, but not in the habitable zone-that is, at a distance from the parent star at which water, if present, would be liquid. There are planets in the habitable zone of stars cooler than our Sun, but for reasons such as tidal locking and strong stellar activity, they are unlikely to harbour water-carbon life as we know it. The detection of a habitable Earth-mass planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun is extremely difficult, because such a signal is overwhelmed by stellar perturbations. Here we report the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting our neighbour star alpha Centauri B, a member of the closest stellar system to the Sun. The planet has an orbital period of 3.236 days and is about 0.04 astronomical units from the star (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance).

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 5