Comments on: Possible HZ planet couldn’t be much closer…

By: ER

ER — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 02:34:53 +0000

Hey, didn’t anybody see “Destination Moon!”?

By: RL

RL — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 01:04:12 +0000

Americans spend more on Pizza than NASA…
http://www.theonion.com/article/nasa-discovers-distant-planet-located-outside-fund-53595
NASA Discovers Distant Planet Located Outside Funding Capabilities

Noting that the celestial body lies within the habitable zone of its parent star and could potentially harbor liquid water, NASA officials announced at a press conference Thursday they have discovered an Earth-like planet located outside their funding capabilities. “Proxima b is located one star away from our solar system, or just about $50 billion outside of our current budget,” said NASA administrator Charles Bolden, who explained that the terrestrial planet, which may possess the right conditions for life to exist, is situated more than two and a half times the agency’s present fiscal allocation away. “This is an incredible discovery that suggests there may, in fact, be untold numbers of Earth-like planets out there beyond the limits of our financing.” Bolden added that with a considerable amount of determination, as well as some luck, he believes it may be possible to reach the planet with the next hundred funding proposals.

The program cost for the F-35 fighter is 1.5 Trillion dollars, about 75 times NASA’s yearly budget… for a fighter… a fighter that still has serious problems. Had that been spent on an interstellar mission, we might be on our way there now.

By: SDG

SDG — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 23:32:58 +0000

Lets say it took 10 years to build, 50 years to get there, and 5 years to get back usable data. Hmmm, that put me at 106… Let’s get started on serious life longevity projects while we are at it, I’m not getting any younger!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Daedalus

By: ER

ER — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 02:45:50 +0000

Proxima (Latin for “closest”) is a small, dim, cool star invisible to the eye, a tiny speck of starlight in the Southern Milky Way. It is the “C” member of a triple system, Alpha Centauri A and B, 4.36 ly distant. The former is a mag 0.01 G star not very different from our Sun; the “B” member is mag 1.34 K star, somewhat fainter and slightly cooler than Sol. It also has been found to have a planet. Both are easily visible to the naked eye, Although to resolve them into separate stars does require some optical aid, such as binoculars. Do not confuse Alpha Cen with nearby Beta Cen, a background object over 400 ly away. Proxima orbits the A and B pair, and is currently on the side of its orbit nearest Earth, which makes it the closest known star to us. Both A and B are somewhat older than our sun, and not too different in temperature and luminosity. Both are far enough apart that other habitable planets in stable orbits around this system cannot be ruled out. What a gift! You couldn’t ask for a better destination for our first extraterrestrial probe: two sunlike stars with at least 1 planet, and a third member with a planet in its habzone.

Beware, the members of a multiple star system are called A, B, C etc, and planets of a star are also denoted a, b, c and so on. So confusion is possible. This new planet should be designated Alpha Centauri C(b).

The Wiki article has lots of useful info on this fascinating system. A fusion-powered Daedalus-type probe could go there, fly right through the middle of this system and beam back the data in less than a human lifetime, all at sub-relativistic velocities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri

Alpha, Beta, and Proxima (circled in red).

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/61/Alpha%2C_Beta_and_Proxima_Centauri_%281%29.jpg/320px-Alpha%2C_Beta_and_Proxima_Centauri_%281%29.jpg