{"id":18555,"date":"2016-09-06T13:49:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-06T17:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=18555"},"modified":"2016-11-30T15:27:38","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T20:27:38","slug":"physics-professor-sheds-light-on-new-planet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/physics-professor-sheds-light-on-new-planet\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics Professor Sheds Light on New Planet"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_18546\" style=\"width: 650px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-18546\" class=\"size-full wp-image-18546\" src=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2016\/08\/2016-08-25-1472155800-1538683-ProximaB-e1472761213689.jpg\" alt=\"Artist\u2019s impression of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. The Alpha Centauri binary system can be seen in the background. (Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2016\/08\/2016-08-25-1472155800-1538683-ProximaB-e1472761213689.jpg 300w, https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2016\/08\/2016-08-25-1472155800-1538683-ProximaB-e1472761213689-299x168.jpg 299w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-18546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Artist\u2019s impression of the exoplanet Proxima Centauri b. The Alpha Centauri binary system can be seen in the background. (Credit: ESO\/M. Kornmesser)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The discovery of the new exoplanet Proxima Centauri b seems like a story out of a science fiction novel \u2013 maybe because it actually is. The plot of science fiction author Stephen Baxter\u2019s 2015 book <em>Proxima<\/em> is about an expedition to the actual red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and the colonization of an Earth-sized planet orbiting it.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/planets.ucf.edu\/people\/Joseph_Harrington\" target=\"_blank\">Joseph Harrington, Ph.D.<\/a>, planetary scientist and professor in the <a href=\"https:\/\/physics.cos.ucf.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\">UCF Department of Physics<\/a> decided that it was time to start listening to the audiobook when a study published in <em>Nature <\/em>on August 24 detailed the discovery of a potentially habitable exoplanet that almost exactly mirrors the description of the planet in the novel. The recently discovered planet is optimal in the same ways as the planet in <em>Proxima<\/em> \u2013 except this one is real.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just a coincidence,\u201d Dr. Harrington said. \u201cProxima b is the planet that you would invent to be both easiest to observe and easiest to get to. This is the ultimate planet \u2013 we could not have asked for a better planet to study in hopes of finding a habitable environment or even life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Harrington has been asked to join the discovery team to help them measure the planet directly, a topic he <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wmfe.org\/just-a-hop-skip-and-a-parsec-away\/63381\" target=\"_blank\">discussed recently <\/a>with Orlando&#8217;s NPR station, WMFE.<\/p>\n<p>The discovery of the new planet stemmed from seeing back and forth shifting in the star\u2019s spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>Both a planet and its star orbit around a center point known as their mutual center of mass. A small Earth-sized planet like Proxima b has a much wider orbit around this point than does its star. Proxima b was discovered because Proxima Centuari also circles this point, causing a back and forth shift in its spectrum.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Harrington said that the time it takes to shift back and forth once \u2013 the planet\u2019s year \u2013 and the fact that it is orbiting a red dwarf star, determines both the planet\u2019s distance from the star and its temperature.<\/p>\n<p>Although it is 4.2 light-years away, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to our sun. Proxima b orbits around it in what Dr. Harrington calls the &#8220;Goldilocks zone,\u201d a zone that is neither too hot nor too cold for a planet to potentially contain liquid water.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is at an appropriate temperature for having liquid water on the surface,\u201d Dr. Harrington said.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s why this discovery is so exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>All of these specifics work out to mean that outside of our solar system, Proxima b is the closest planet to Earth that could possibly foster life.<\/p>\n<p>No one has actually seen the planet yet &#8211; only its influence on the star, Dr. Harrington said. He is now focusing on observations that will detect the planet directly.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Harrington\u2019s research team is currently looking for transits, which are instances when a planet orbits in front of a star. They do not know if Proxima b actually transits at this point \u2013 and it might not at all.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe likelihood of it transiting is very low, only around 1\u00a0percent,\u201d Dr. Harrington said. \u201cBut if it does transit, it opens up a whole new set of observations that we can do. If it doesn\u2019t transit then at least we know we have to focus on other methods.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While the possibility for Proxima b to fail to transit is also present, Dr. Harrington is willing to take the risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The discovery of the new exoplanet Proxima Centauri b seems like a story out of a science fiction novel \u2013 maybe because it actually is. The plot of science fiction author Stephen Baxter\u2019s 2015 book Proxima is about an expedition to the actual red dwarf star Proxima Centauri and the colonization of an Earth-sized planet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":120,"featured_media":18546,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,39,13,14,15,25,27,28,29],"tags":[1851,2771,2772,2773,2774,3539,3610],"class_list":["post-18555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-faculty-news","category-news","category-physics-departments","category-planetary-sciences","category-staff-news","category-stem","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-joseph-harrington","tag-proxima","tag-proxima-b","tag-proxima-centauri-b","tag-proxima-centuari","tag-ucf-department-of-physics","tag-ucf-physics-department"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Physics Professor Sheds Light on New Planet - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/physics-professor-sheds-light-on-new-planet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Physics Professor Sheds Light on New Planet - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The discovery of the new exoplanet Proxima Centauri b seems like a story out of a science fiction novel \u2013 maybe because it actually is. 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