A Possible Planet in the Habitable zone of Alpha Centauri

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An important pursuit of modern astronomy is the search for worlds that are potentially similar to Earth. Researchers have used the Hubble Space Telescope and adaptive optics systems on ground-based telescopes for decades to image Jupiter-sized exoplanets and brown dwarfs. While dozens of worlds have been imaged in the outer reaches of their solar systems, none have so far been discovered in a star’s habitable zone–the region where liquid water is possible on a rocky planet’s surface. • • In February 2021, a team of astronomers announced that they might have spotted a Neptune-to-Saturn-sized planet lurking in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri, a binary star system a mere 4.37 light-years away from Earth. It could be one of the closest habitable-zone planet prospects to date, although it’s probably not much like Earth if it does exist. • • We invited Kevin Wagner, Sagan fellow at the University of Arizona and lead author of the study, to talk with Senior Planetary Astronomer Franck Marchis about this discovery. • • Kevin Wagner completed his PhD at the University of Arizona, and in 2020 he was named a Sagan Fellow as part of NASA’s Hubble Fellowship Program. He uses ground-based adaptive optics systems (such as those on the VLT and LBT) to directly image nearby exoplanets, with a specific focus on imaging rocky planets in the habitable zones of nearby Sun-like stars. • • Paper link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146... • • If you like science, support the SETI Institute! We're a non-profit research institution whose focus is understanding the nature and origins of life in the universe. Donate here: https://seti.org/donate • Learn more about the SETI Institute and stay up-to-date on awesome science: • Subscribe to our YouTube channel at / setiinstitute • Watch our streams over on Twitch at / setiinstitute • Listen to our podcast, Big Picture Science http://www.bigpicturescience.org/ • Subscribe to our newsletter https://seti.org/signup • Buy merchandise from Chop Shop https://www.chopshopstore.com/collect... • Don't forget to like and subscribe! Ring the bell for notifications of when we go live. • • #SETILive #AlphaCentauri #Exoplanet

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