Alpha Centauri Bb

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Alpha Centauri Bb was a suspected exoplanet around the star Alpha Centauri B . Its supposed discovery was announced in October 2012. The discovery was viewed with skepticism by experts from the start. Further investigations initially neither confirmed nor definitively refuted the discovery. Finally, in 2015, an investigation appeared that further reinforced doubts about the planet's existence, and in the same year Dumusque acknowledged that the planet's signal was probably wrong. Accordingly, the planet is also in the Extrasolar Planets Encyclopaedia in the status "retracted".

Alleged properties

The minimum mass of the exoplanet was stated by the discoverers to be around 1.1 earth masses, which is somewhat larger than one earth mass. The orbit of the exoplanet around Alpha Centauri B was given with an orbital period of 3.236 days and a semi-major axis of 0.04 AU. Accordingly, due to its proximity to the solar system and its earth-like mass , the planet aroused great media attention, although earth-like life could be ruled out from the start with these orbital data.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dumusque et al. (Translation: Carolin Liefke): Planet discovered in star system closest to the sun. In: eso.org. October 16, 2012, accessed October 17, 2012 .
  2. ↑ Xavier Dumusque, Francesco Pepe, Christophe et al .: Lovis An Earth-mass planet orbiting α Centauri B . In: Nature . Vol. 491, 2012, pp. 207–211 , doi : 10.1038 / nature11572 (English).
  3. ↑ Maike Pollmann: First exoplanet in the immediate vicinity? Spektrum.de, October 17, 2012, accessed on October 20, 2012 .
  4. ^ Artie P. Hatzes: Radial Velocity Detection of Earth-mass Planets in the Presence of Activity Noise: The Case of Alpha Centauri Bb . In: Astrophysical Journal (accepted for publication) . May 21, 2013, arxiv : 1305.4960v1 : "It may be premature to attribute the 3.24 day RV variations to an Earth-mass planet."
  5. ^ Dennis Overbye: Hold Off on the Alpha Centauri Trip. The New York Times, June 10, 2013, accessed October 15, 2013 .
  6. ↑ Bruce Betts, Debra Fischer: Update on the search for planets in the Alpha Centauri system. The Planetary Society, April 4, 2014, accessed August 28, 2014 .
  7. ↑ Vinesh Rajpaul: Ghost in the time series: no planet for Alpha Cen B . In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters . Vol. 456, October 19, 2015, pp. L6 – L10 , doi : 10.1093 / mnrasl / slv164 , arxiv : 1510.05598 , bibcode : 2016MNRAS.456L ... 6R (English).
  8. ↑ Devin Powell: Poof! The Planet Closest To Our Solar System Just Vanished. National Geographic, October 29, 2015, accessed January 15, 2015 .
  9. ↑ Alf Cen b b. Retrieved January 19, 2019 .