- The closest Earth-like planet is right next door.
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In August 2016 some scientists
at the European Southern Observatory had some huge news.
They had discovered a plant in orbit
around Proxima Centauri.
Not only that, it is in the Goldilocks Zone for that star.
That's an area a planet can be in
where liquid water could theoretically exist
on the planet's surface.
And Proxima Centauri is the closest star
to our solar system.
This is huge news!
But let's talk about some details.
First, here's what we know for sure.
Proxima Centauri is about
4.22 light years away from Earth.
It's a red dwarf star, and it gives off much less light
than our sun does.
I'm talking .16% the luminosity
that our sun generates.
It's also a flare star,
which means it sometimes shoots out radiation
in the form of ultraviolet rays or x-rays.
Not so great for Earth life.
The name of the newly-discovered planet is Proxima b,
and the scientists believe it has a mass
of at least 1.3 times that of Earth's.
It also has a really short year
that lasts just 11.2 Earth days.
And here's the thing.
We haven't even laid eyes on the place.
Not even with a telescope.
The way the scientists discovered Proxima b
is they looked at the behavior of its host star.
You see, stars and planets have a gravitational pull
on one another, and as a planet goes around a star
it causes the star to wiggle.
We can use this knowledge
to detect planets at distant stars.
Normally it only works with really big planets,
like Jupiter size.
But Proxima Centauri is so close to us
we could actually see the effect
even though Proxima b is relatively tiny.
When the star starts to move toward us
it compresses light waves,
and when it moves away from us,
it elongates those light waves.
This creates a blue shift or a red shift.
By observing the star for awhile,
we can tell what might be in orbit around it,
how massive it is, and how fast its orbital path might be.
Now here's all the stuff we don't know.
We don't know if Proxima b has an atmosphere.
We don't know if it has a magnetosphere,
or if it does, how strong that magnetic field might be.
We don't know if water is actually
on the surface of the planet.
Although hypothetically, it could be
if there's an atmosphere on Proxima b as well.
What's more, we're not gonna get a good look
at Proxima b any time soon.
None of our telescopes have the resolution necessary
to image Proxima b.
It's too small and too close to Proxima Centauri,
so we wouldn't be able to tell which light
was coming from the star
versus being reflected off the planet.
But we could build a better telescope.
And in fact, we have some in the works right now
that may image Proxima b
as early as 2024.
I know, it's a long time to wait, but it'll be worth it!
But what if we actually wanted to go there?
Well, 4.22 light years is tiny on the cosmic scale,
but it's still a really far way to go.
If we were to use a spacecraft like the Space Shuttle,
it would take us 165,000 years of travel
to get to Proxima b.
And I don't know about you,
but I don't have that kind of time.
There are scientists that are working on
a new type of spacecraft.
They're calling it a nanocraft,
because it's small enough that it would fit
on the palm of your hand.
And it would use a solar sail powered by
a laser here on Earth for propulsion.
With this method, it could reach a theoretical top speed
of about 20% the speed of light.
That's wicked fast.
You could get there in 20 years.
So let's do a little math.
Let's say it takes 20 years of research and development
to build the nanocraft.
Then it takes another 20 years
for the nanocraft to go from Earth to Proxima b.
Then it takes 4.22 years for any information
to get back to us because of the light years' distance
between the two points.
So 44 years from now.
See you in 2060 Proxima b!
I've got a question for you guys this week.
What would it take for you guys to pick up stakes
and go to another planet?
I want to hear your thoughts in the comments below.
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and making it possible.
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