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Ghost Planet

In Exoplanets by Brian Koberlein0 Comments

One of the biggest challenges in the search for exoplanets is distinguishing real evidence of a planet from random fluctuations that give a false positive.

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Alpha Centauri has a Posse

In Exoplanets by Brian Koberlein6 Comments

When we started looking for extrasolar planets, Alpha Centauri was high on the list of any astronomer’s inner child. But despite its closeness, finding planets there would be difficult. The orbit of Alpha Centauri B is at an angle relative to us, so there isn’t likely to be any transiting planets that we can detect. That means planets would have to be found by looking at the wobble of the star as the planet orbits it, which is much harder to measure.