Found Potentially Earth Like Planet Orbits Suns Nearest Neighbor. The star closest to the sun hosts a planet that may be very much like Earth, a new study reports. Astronomers have discovered a roughly Earth size alien world around Proxima Centauri, which lies just 4. Whats even more exciting, study team members said, is that the planet, known as Proxima b, circles in the stars habitable zone the range of distances at which liquid water could be stable on a worlds surface. We hope these findings inspire future generations to keep looking beyond the stars, lead author Guillem Anglada Escude, a physics and astronomy lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement. The search for life on Proxima b comes next. In Pictures The Discovery of Planet Proxima b. The discovery of Proxima b was a long time in the making. Astronomers have been hunting intensively for planets around Proxima Centauri for more 1. Ultraviolet and Visual Echelle Spectrograph UVES and the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher HARPS, both of which are installed on telescopes run by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. This artists impression shows the exoplanet Proxima b, which orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri. The double star Alpha Centauri AB appears in the image between the exoplanet and its star. Credit ESOM. Kornmesser. UVES, HARPS and other instruments like them allow researchers to detect the slight wobbles in a stars movement caused by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets. Astronomers found hints of such a wobble back in 2. Anglada Escude said. So he and a number of other researchers launched a campaign to ferret out the planet. Alpha Centauri 2014' title='Alpha Centauri 2014' />Barring the Sun, the closest star to Earth is actually a triple star system called Alpha Centauri, over four light years away. They called this effort the Pale Red Dot a nod to Carl Sagans famous description of Earth as a pale blue dot, and the fact that Proxima Centauri is a small, dim star known as a red dwarf. The Pale Red Dot team focused HARPS on Proxima Centauri every night from Jan. March 3. 1 of this year. Alpha definition the first letter in the Greek alphabet, a vowel transliterated as a Meaning, pronunciation, translations and examples. Omega Centauri is a globular cluster located in the direction of Centaurus constellation. Hosting about 10 million stars within a region about 150 light. Alpha Centauri 2014' title='Alpha Centauri 2014' />After they combined this new data with UVES observations from 2. HARPS observations from 2. Then, after analyzing observations of the stars brightness made by several other telescopes, Anglada Escude and his colleagues ruled out the possibility that this signal could be caused by the variable activity of Proxima Centauri. The conclusion We have found a planet around Proxima Centauri, Anglada Escude said Tuesday Aug. The Search for Another Earth Video. How did Proxima b remain undetected for so long, in an era when astronomers are finding exoplanets thousands of light years from Earth The uneven and sparse sampling, combined with the longer term variability of the star, seem to be the reasons why the signal could not be unambiguously confirmed with pre 2. Aug. 2. 4 in the journal Nature. The news confirms rumors first reported earlier this month by German magazine Der Spiegel. Incidentally, the team also spotted possible signs of an additional Proxima Centauri planet, which would have an orbital period of between 6. But that second signal is much weaker and might be caused by stellar activity, the researchers said. Artists illustration of the surface of Proxima b, a potentially Earth like world that circles the nearest star to the sun. Credit ESOM. Kornmesser. Alpha Centauri 2014' title='Alpha Centauri 2014' />An Earth like world The HARPS and UVES data indicate that Proxima b is about 1. Earth, which suggests that the exoplanet is a rocky world, the researchers said. Strange Facts About Planet Proxima b. Proxima b lies just 4. Earth days. As a result, its likely that the exoplanet is tidally locked, meaning it always shows the same face to its host star, just as the moon shows only one face the near side to Earth. A description of tropes appearing in Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. Civilization, IN SPACE In 2060 AD, the Earth was one hell of an awful place to live, torn. Alpha Centauri alfa ntai Centauri, abgekrzt Cen, aber auch Rigil Kentaurus, Rigilkent, Toliman oder Bungula genannt ist im Sternbild des. For comparison, Earth orbits about 9. But Proxima bs relatively tight orbit puts it right in the middle of the habitable zone, because red dwarfs are so much cooler and dimmer than sun like stars, team members said. Not much else is known about Proxima b, so its unclear just how hospitable the planet may be to life. In fact, there are reasons to be pessimistic on this front, noted Artie Hatzes, an astronomer at the Thuringian State Observatory in Germany. Proxima Centauri fires off powerful flares, and the planet therefore experiences a much higher dose of high energy X ray radiation than Earth does, Hatzes, who is not part of the discovery team, wrote in an accompanying News and Views article in the same issue of Nature. Energetic particles associated with the flares may erode the atmosphere or hinder the development of primitive forms of life, Hatzes wrote. We also dont know whether the exoplanet has a magnetic field, like Earth, which could shield it from the dangerous stellar radiation. Alpha Centauri 2014' title='Alpha Centauri 2014' />Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri is a video game in the 4X genre which is considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of. Alpha Centauri Centauri, abbreviated Alpha Cen, Cen is the closest star system to the Solar System, being 4. Sun. Centauri war eine Sendereihe des Bildungskanals BRalpha des Bayerischen Rundfunks, in der der Astrophysiker Harald Lesch in jeweils ca. Folgen. But the higher X ray flux is not a showstopper for life, Anglada Escude and his colleagues said. None of this does exclude the existence of an atmosphere, or of surface water, co author Ansgar Reiners, a professor at the University of Gttingens Institute of Astrophysics in Germany, said during Tuesdays news conference. How Proxima Centauri behaved in the distant past is more relevant to the newfound planets potential habitability than current radiation levels are, Reiners added. What is more interesting is the history of the planet  whether in the early ages, the young ages, of this planet the star was so active, and the star emitted so much high energy radiation, that it blew away the atmosphere and may have blown away the water also, he said. Other aspects of the planets history also have a bearing on just how wet Proxima b may be. For example, if the alien world formed far from the star but then migrated inward, it is likely water rich if it formed near its present position, it likely started out much drier, study team members said. But even this latter scenario doesnt preclude the existence of large amounts of water on Proxima b, Anglada Escude stressed comet andor asteroid strikes could deliver the substance, as apparently happened here on Earth, he said. Tidally locked planets were once regarded as inhospitable to life  baked too hot on the star facing side, and freezing cold on the dark side. But recent research suggests that such worlds may indeed be habitable winds in their atmospheres could distribute heat, smoothing out temperature extremes. And if Proxima b is potentially habitable, life forms have a long time to gain a foothold there Red dwarfs keep burning for trillions of years, in contrast to stars like the sun, which die after 1. Proxima Centauri will exist for several hundreds or thousands of times longer than the sun, Hatzes wrote in his News and Views piece. Any life on the planet could still be evolving long after our sun has died. The sun is 4. 6 billion years old. Proxima Centauri is thought to be slightly older perhaps 4. Searching for life. Proxima b likely does not transit, or cross the face of, its host star from Earths perspective, Anglada Escude and his colleagues said. That characteristic will make it tougher to study Proxima b further astronomers can learn a lot about the atmospheres of transiting exoplanets by studying the starlight that passes through them. NASAs 8. 8 billion James Webb Space Telescope, which is scheduled to launch in late 2. But Proxima b is close enough to Earth that scientists may soon be able to image it directly. Indeed, it should be possible to resolve the planet separately from its host star using a telescope with an aperture of 1. Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri Wikipedia. Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri. DevelopersFiraxis Games. PublishersWindows. Mac. Linux. DirectorsSid Meier. DesignersBrian Reynolds, Michael Ely, Bing Gordon, Sid Meier. Honda Service Manual Cb1 on this page. ComposersJeffery L. Briggs, David Evans1Series. Civilization. PlatformsMicrosoft Windows, Classic Mac OS, Linux. Release. February 1. Alpha Centauri. Microsoft Windows. NA February 1. 2, 1. EU February 1. 7, 1. JP September 1. 4, 2. Mac OSNA February 2. EU March 1. 0, 2. Linux. Alien Crossfire. Microsoft Windows. Mac OSNA February 2. EU March 1. 0, 2. Linux. Genres4. X, Turn based strategy. ModesSingle player, multiplayer. Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri is a video game in the 4. X genre which is considered a spiritual sequel to the Civilization series. Set in a science fiction depiction of the 2. Chiron Planet in the Alpha Centauristar system. As the game progresses, Planets growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left Micro. Prose to join the newly created developer. Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts released both Alpha Centauri and its expansion, Sid Meiers Alien Crossfire, in 1. The following year, Aspyr Mediaported both titles to Classic Mac OS while Loki Software ported them to Linux. Alpha Centauri features improvements on Civilization IIs game engine, including simultaneous multiplay, social engineering, climate, customizable units, alien native life, additional diplomatic and spy options, additional ways to win, and greater mod ability. Alien Crossfire introduces five new human and two non human factions, as well as additional technologies, facilities, secret projects, native life, unit abilities, and a victory condition. The game received wide critical acclaim, being compared favorably to Civilization II. Critics praised its science fiction storyline comparing the plot to works by Stanley Kubrick, Frank Herbert, Arthur C. Clarke, and Isaac Asimov, the in game writing, the voice acting, the user created custom units, and the depth of the technology tree. Alpha Centauri also won several awards for best game of the year and best strategy game of the year. SynopsiseditSettingeditSpace race victories in the Civilization series conclude with a journey to Alpha Centauri. Beginning with that premise the Alpha Centauri narrative starts in the 2. United Nations sends Unity, a colonization mission, to Alpha Centauris planet Chiron Planet. Unbeknownst to humans, advanced extraterrestrials Progenitors had been conducting experiments in vast distributed nervous systems, culminating in planetary biosphere sized presentient nervous system Manifold on Chiron, leaving behind monoliths and artifacts on Planet to guide and examine the systems growth. Immediately prior to the start of the game, a reactor malfunction on the Unity spacecraft wakes the crew and colonists early and irreparably severs communications with Earth. After the captain is assassinated, the most powerful leaders on board build ideological factions with dedicated followers, conflicting agendas for the future of mankind, and desperately serious commitments. As the ship breaks up, seven escape pods, each containing a faction, are scattered across Planet. In the Alien Crossfire expansion pack, it is learned that earlier alien experiments had led to disastrous consequences at Tau Ceti, creating a hundred million year evolutionary cycle that ended with the eradication of most complex animal life in several neighbouring inhabited star systems. After the disaster referred to by Progenitors as Tau Ceti Flowering, the Progenitors split into two factions Manifold Caretakers, opposed to further experimentation and dedicated to preventing another Flowering and Manifold Usurpers, favoring further experimentation and intending to induce a controlled Flowering in Alpha Centauris Planet. In Alien Crossfire, these factions compete along with the human factions for control over the destiny of Planet. CharacterseditThe game focuses on the leaders of seven factions, chosen by the player from the 1. Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire, and Planet voiced by Alena Kanka. The characters are developed from the faction leaders portraits, the spoken monologues accompanying scientific discoveries and the photographs in the corner of a commlink home towns, first steps, first loves, family, graduation, spacewalk. The leaders in Alpha Centauri comprise Lady Deirdre Skye voiced by Carolyn Dahl of Gaias Stepdaughters, Scottish activist and former U. N. S. Unity xenobiologist. Chairman Sheng Ji Yang voiced by Lu Yu of the Human Hive, former scholar, military officer and U. N. S. Unity Chief of Security and executive officer. Has a propensity for Chinese Legalism. Academician Prokhor Zakharov voiced by Yuri Nesteroff of the University of Planet, a Russian academic and former U. N. S. Unity science officer. CEO Nwabudike Morgan voiced by Regi Davis, of Morgan Industries, a Namibian diamond tycoon who funded the U. N. S. Unity mission. Colonel Corazon Santiago voiced by Wanda Nio, of the Spartan Federation, a Puerto Rican militiawoman and former U. N. S. Unity security officer. Sister Miriam Godwinson voiced by Gretchen Weigel, of the Lords Believers, an American minister and social psychologist and former U. N. S. chaplain and. Commissioner Pravin Lal voiced by Hesh Gordon, of the Peacekeeping Forces, an Indian surgeon and diplomat. The player controls one of the leaders and competes against the others to colonize and conquer Planet. The Datalinks voiced by Robert Levy and Katherine Ferguson are minor characters who provide information to the player. Each faction excels at one or two important aspects of the game and follows a distinct philosophical belief, such as technological utopianism, Conclave Christianity, free market capitalism, militarist survivalism, Chinese Legalism, U. N. Charter humanitarianism, or Environmentalist. Gaia philosophy. 1. The game takes place on Planet, with its rolling red ochre plains and bands of lonely terraformed green. The seven additional faction leaders in Alien Crossfire are Prime Function Aki Zeta Five voiced by Allie Rivenbark, of The Cybernetic Consciousness, a Norwegian research assistant turned cyborg. Captain Ulrik Svensgaard voiced by James Liebman, of The Nautilus Pirates, an American fisherman and naval officer. Foreman Domai voiced by Frederick Serafin, of The Free Drones, an Australian labor leader. Datajack Sinder Roze voiced by Christine Melton, of The Data Angels, a Trinidadian hacker. Prophet Cha Dawn voiced by Stacy Spenser of The Cult of Planet, a human born on Planet. Guardian Lular Hminee voiced by Jeff Gordon, of The Manifold Caretakers, a Progenitor leader, and. Conqueror Judaa Maar voiced by Jeff Gordon, of The Manifold Usurpers, a Progenitor leader. The story unfolds via the introduction video, explanations of new technologies, videos obtained for completing secret projects, interludes, and cut scenes. The native life consists primarily of simple wormlike alien parasites and a type of red fungus that spreads rapidly via spores.