Something happened to Proxima Centauri B? Scientists discovered that this planet is losing "life conditions"!
The nearby Sagittarius galaxy is the galaxy closest to the sun. There is an exoplanet Proxima Centauri B in its system. According to astronomers, this is a very strange planet because it is the closest to the features found so far. Earth planet. The star Centaur in its galaxy is smaller than the sun. However, recently, scientists seem to have discovered something wrong!
Proxima Centauri B is a slightly larger planet than Earth that rotates and orbits within its habitable zone. Scientists speculate that there may be water and even life on it. Although Proxima B is similar to Earth, it is a strange planet. The parent star of Proxima Centauri Centauri is a strange three-star star. Astronomers have not yet understood the operating principle of this system. It is preliminarily determined that the other two stars are binary stars, that is to say, their orbits have the same center of gravity. Together, they are called "Alpha Centaur"!
According to astronomers' point of view, the main star of Centauri can pass through the other two stars, or have a gravitational center of mass with it in a certain orbit. If so, orbiting Alpha Centauri would take half a million years. It would take millions of years not to leave this area. In the past, it was thought that red dwarfs such as Neighbors were too close to each other to support habitable planets. However, due to their orbital distance: According to astronomers, red dwarfs are currently the focus of the search for habitable planets outside our solar system. The best location. The British " Guardian " published a strange message from the constellation Centauri B.
This star is 4.2 light-years away, and the signal appears to be coming from the closest star to us. Some people think that this is a high-tech alien intelligence signal, but in fact it is the opposite. However, it is not yet known what the signal represents, unless it reaches Proxima Centauri for observation. But it's impossible to reach Proxima Centauri B, so astronomers can only observe it from Earth.
In the meantime, they published this in a report by Harvard astronomer arxiv Loeb. Loeb, who shares Kreidberg's expertise in planetary atmospheres, speculated that a civilization operating near its small red dwarf star would likely be trapped by eternal tides, similar to the Earth-moon system . Loeb said it would be very difficult to spot stars near the constellation Centauri without specialized instruments. To find the exoplanet's primary star, astronomers had to use a trick where the gravity created by the planet as it orbits the star causes them to jiggle slightly.
Using the telescope of the Southern European Observatory , by observing the Doppler effect or the change in apparent wavelength, Chilean astronomers conducted a Doppler oscillation on Proxima Centauri and found that the celestial body is surrounded by Surrounding a planet with a diameter slightly larger than the Earth, it is about 4.3 million kilometers away from its parent star. However, the differences between this galaxy are huge. Red dwarf Centaur is a much cooler star than its neighbor, with a radius of only 15% that of the Sun. Therefore, Proxima Centauri B is actually closer to Proxima Centauri than to Earth. A small star should look more harmonious due to its location in the habitable zone, but the good news is that stellar flares occur more on red dwarfs than on the Sun. Therefore, compared with neighboring galaxies, its planets experience more extreme space climates than Earth.
As humanity grapples with major issues such as climate change and its worsening effects, people sometimes consider whether it is possible for humans to survive on another planet, as life on Earth faces increasing difficulties. Proxima B is not necessarily habitable, although it is in the habitable zone. For example, water can accumulate on a planet's surface despite its location in the habitable zone, the distance from its host star.But we have to consider whether the planet actually has water, or whether the atmosphere can be sustained in that orbit. At this point, all theories agree that Proxima Centauri B has a suitable atmosphere, but it is too close to the parent star , and the average amount of radiation produced by Proxima Centauri is large.
Under the action of high-intensity ultraviolet light, atmospheric molecules are ionized, electrons are broken up, and a bunch of charged particles are formed. The mutual attraction between two different charges causes more negatively charged electrons to leave the atmosphere, resulting in a strong charge separation that pushes positively charged ions into space. Compared with the Earth, Proxima Centauri B The radiation intensity suffered is hundreds of times stronger. These radioactive materials can release enough energy to slowly separate heavy elements like oxygen and nitrogen from the lightest hydrogen molecules. The researchers studied two factors that increase atmospheric loss to understand how this process changes. They first looked at air temperatures in the thermosphere, or hollow space, as a reference. They found that with more and more solar radiation, the temperature of thermosphere increased, and the escape of the atmosphere also increased. This is an anomaly discovered recently on Proxima Centauri.
The researchers also considered the size of Proxima B's polar cap, the region where atmospheric escape occurs. At their magnetic poles , the planets are the largest pole caps susceptible to the magnetic effects . When the magnetic field lines at the poles are closed, the pole caps are constrained and charged particles are trapped near the Earth. On the other hand, when the magnetic field lines are open, more escape occurs, providing a one-way path into space. The researchers proved that if it has the highest thermospheric temperature and a completely open magnetic field, most of the mass will escape within 2 billion years under the scientists' lowest temperature and closed magnetic field assumptions. In other words, the planet will eventually lose its life. conditions for existence.
Because red dwarfs are the coldest, smallest and most common stars in the Milky Way , they are often the target of exoplanet searches. Planets need to maintain tight orbits, however, scientists have found that such close distances are no hope for atmospheric survival or sustainability unless atmospheric losses are offset by some other process, such as massive volcanic activity or comet bombardment. We believe that if life exists on Proxima Centauri B, it may be completely different from the life that exists on our own planet because the species would need to emerge and grow in a completely different environment. So our best hope is to drill down and look for life beneath the surface. So do you think there is hope for life on Proxima Centauri B? Welcome to leave your opinion!
