Today marks the second anniversary of the announcement of the discovery of the planet α Centauri Bb. But despite the importance of finding a planet orbiting one of the pair of Sun-like stars that makes up the closest star system to our Sun, this discovery is still unconfirmed and many questions remain. The primary source of unease centers around the fact that the radial velocity variations in α Centauri B used to infer the existence of this planet were much smaller than the noise in the data and the technique used to extract that signal was brand new. Given how several planets orbiting GJ 581 and 667C (including some widely believed to be potentially habitable) have recently “disappeared” when it was discovered that stellar surface activity was mistaken for a planetary signature, the case for α Centauri Bb would seem to be somewhat shaky.
In my second essay for the Centauri Dreams web site, titled “Happy Anniversary Alpha Centauri Bb?”, I review the discovery of α Centauri Bb, the outstanding issues surrounding its discovery and the status of currently known programs to confirm this planet’s existence. With luck, we will not only resolve the issues surrounding α Centauri Bb soon but deepen the search for extrasolar planets in the α Centauri system including inside the habitable zones of its stars.
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Related Reading
“Happy Anniversary Alpha Centaury Bb?”, Centauri Dreams. October 16, 2014 [Post]
“The Search for Planets Around Alpha Centauri”, Drew Ex Machina, August 11, 2014 [Post]
“The Search for Planets Around Alpha Centauri II”, Drew Ex Machina, September 25, 2014 [Post]
“The Search for Planets Around Proxima Centauri”, Drew Ex Machina, February 23, 2015 [Post]
“Publication Watch: The Stability of Planets in the Alpha Centauri System”, SETIQuest, Vol. 3, No. 3, p. 16, Third Quarter 1997 [Article]
“Habitable Planet Reality Check: GJ 667C”, Drew Ex Machina, September 7, 2014 [Post]
“The Disappearing Habitable Planet of GJ 581”, Drew Ex Machina, July 7, 2014 [Post]