Is There An Earth-Like Planet In Alpha Centauri?
Thanks to an upcoming telescope, we may soon find out
Despite being ‘only’ four and a bit lightyears away, the Alpha Centauri star system remains a tantalising mystery. In theory, a habitable Earth-like exoplanet could exist around either of the binary stars, but the stars are too bright for our current telescopes to see these other worlds hidden in their glare. But this is all about to change. A new, privately funded space telescope will launch in the next few years to answer this very question. But will it find a new alien world?
Before we look at this fantastic telescope, we first need to understand what a binary star system is and how it could host a habitable planet.
In a binary star system, two stars are orbiting each other. This means they orbit a point between them, not one star orbiting another. Most binary systems have one larger star and a smaller star, but Alpha Centauri A & B are both Sun-sized stable main sequence stars.
This is why Alpha Centauri could host a habitable world as they have a stable habitable zone. This is also why other stars like Proxima Centauri likely…
