A whole new world: TOLIMAN to scan for habitable exoplanets in Alpha Centauri
The TOLIMAN project will see a new space telescope launched in order to closely examine the Alpha Centauri system.
A view of the surface of the planet Proxima b orbiting the red
dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our Solar System, is
seen in an undated artist's impression released by the European Southern
Observatory August 24, 2016. (photo credit: ESO/M. KORNMESSER/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)
An exciting new project will see scientists take a closer look than
ever before at Earth’s nearest interstellar neighbor to find new
worlds, some of which could be able to host life.
Dubbed TOLIMAN, the project is the work of Breakthrough Watch, a project of the Breakthrough Initiatives program founded by Russian-Israeli billionaire Yuri Milner,
along with the Australian company Saber Astronautics and NASA’s Jet
Propulsion Laboratory. The project will see a new space telescope
launched in order to closely examine the Alpha Centauri system. The
mission’s name is an acronym for Telescope for Orbit Locus
Interferometric Monitoring of our Astronomical Neighborhood but is also
derived from the old Arabic name for Alpha Centauri.
The system in question is the closest star system to our own, located
just over four light-years away. However, there are some very notable
differences. Unlike our own solar system, which just has one star, Alpha
Centauri has three, making it a triple star system. Two of these stars –
Alpha Centauri A (Rigil Kentaurus) and Alpha Centauri B (Toliman) – are
the same type of star as our sun. The third star, Alpha Centauri C
(Proxima Centauri), which is the closest of the three to Earth, is a
smaller, red dwarf star that is harder to notice.
But what is especially interesting about this star system is the presence of exoplanets,
a term that refers to any planet discovered outside of the solar
system. While scientists have long theorized that exoplanets exist, only
a relative handful – around 5,000 – have definitively been identified
throughout the infinite reaches of the cosmos. This is because it can be
very difficult to truly spot them, especially since the brightness of
stars tends to vastly overwhelm the brightness reflected off these
worlds.
But
scientists are confident that some planets exist in the Alpha Centauri
system. One planet, believed to be a giant planet comparable in size to
Neptune, is thought to be orbiting Rigil Kentaurus. It is likely a gas
giant, though because it inhabits the habitable zone, its moons could
potentially be able to support life, something Breakthrough Initiatives
executive director Pete Worden compared to the planet in the 2009 James
Cameron film Avatar.
The
planet Proxima b orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the
closest star to our Solar System, is seen in an undated artist's
impression. (credit: REUTERS)
But it is Proxima Centauri that is the most interesting.
While
the existence of the giant planet is still unconfirmed, two exoplanets
are confirmed to be orbiting Proxima Centauri. Proxima b and Proxima c.
Of the two, the former is close in size to Earth and is in the habitable
zone. And as an Earth-sized world in the habitable zone of a red dwarf
star, some have drawn comparisons to Superman’s fictional homeworld of
Krypton.
Though Proxima b is in the habitable zone, and scientists believe it is a rocky world, there is still so much unknown about it.
But why are we only now looking at our closest interstellar
neighbors, whereas other missions have focused on more distant stars?
Part
of this has to do with the brightness, which can make observation
difficult. As a result, the new TOLIMAN space telescope uses
measurements to find the exact position of these stellar bodies and, in
turn, deduce their mass, a field of study known as astrometry.
When
a planet orbits a star, its own gravity will tug on it ever so
slightly, causing the star to “wobble,” Worden explained. This can help
scientists detect the mass and distance of an exoplanet from the star.
“We
can’t detect the composition of an exoplanet, but if we determine the
mass - like five times of Earth - and we can measure the brightness -
and we have a marginal measure for the giant planet - then we can make
assumptions about the reflectivity,” he said. “From that, we can deduce
the radius and then that way, you can get a mean density. So if it’s a
rocky world or water world, you can figure it out.”
New Toliman SpaceTelescope Will Hunt for Alien Life In Alpha Centauri Star System
But it is unclear if Proxima b can support life.
“Proxima
Centauri is a flare star,” Worden explained. “Every few days, it has an
explosion, it might brighten 100 times. It was thought that these would
have blown the atmosphere of a planet away.”
But we don’t know for sure, and it is still worth looking at our closest neighbor in space.
The mission is tentatively slated to be launched in two years and
will spend four to six years observing Alpha Centauri, and information
gleaned from this observation as well as through future advancements in
telescopes could eventually lead to atmospheric analyses, such as if the
planet could support life.
Further,
this could also determine if the planet was an ideal candidate for
another Breakthrough Initiatives program: Breakthrough Starshot - a
mission that would see specially designed spacecrafts head to Alpha
Centauri and send a message back.
Though this journey would take over 20
years and would require traveling around 20% the speed of light, the
research into this program seems promising so far.
But as for Worden and Breakthrough Watch, they are already looking into the future.
“There’s
another star system further away called 61 Cygni,” he explained. “This
is a binary star system, it has two stars similar to the Sun that might
be able to support life. We want to look there and see what we can
find.”
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