Proxima Centauri c: Planet confirmation from 25 year old data:

Discussion in 'Astronomy, Exobiology, & Cosmology' started by paddoboy, Jun 3, 2020.

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    https://phys.org/news/2020-06-astronomer-year-old-hubble-planet-proxima.html

    New tricks from old data: Astronomer uses 25-year-old Hubble data to confirm planet Proxima Centauri c

    Fritz Benedict has used data he took over two decades ago with Hubble Space Telescope to confirm the existence of another planet around the Sun's nearest neighbor, Proxima Centauri, and to pin down the planet's orbit and mass. Benedict, an emeritus Senior Research Scientist with McDonald Observatory at The University of Texas at Austin, will present his findings today in a scientific session and then in a press conference at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

    Proxima Centauri has been in the news frequently since 2016, when scientists including McDonald Observatory's Michael Endl found its first planet, Proxima Centauri b. The discovery incited speculation on the types of in-depth studies that could done on an extrasolar planet so close to our own solar system.

    Adding to the excitement, earlier this year a group led by Mario Damasso of Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) announced they might have found another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri farther out. This group used radial velocity observations, that is, measurements of the star's motion on the sky toward and away from Earth, to deduce the possible planet (dubbed Proxima Centauri c) orbits the star every 1,907 days at distance of 1.5 AU (that is, 1.5 times the distance at which Earth orbits the Sun).
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