Last week the German weekly Der Spiegel published a rumor that the astronomers of the European southern Observatory discovered earth-like planet near the star Proxima Centauri. As you know, this star system is the nearest to the Solar System – the distance to it is 4.24 light years. The report says that a unique discovery will be published in late August. The official representative of the Observatory ESO was neither to confirm nor deny this information.
If the information is correct, then there is little doubt that we are talking about the full success of the project Pale Red Dot. In this case, the only question that remains, what is the orbital period of new planet. On March 13 the participants of the project published six possible results of his research, among which only one option is present. Among these six options have two options statistically significant planets with periods of rotation in 11.3 and 22.4 days, respectively. You can consider each case separately:
1) the orbital Period of new planet is equal to 11.3 of the day. The short circulation period of the signal of this planet in periodogram much more believable than a signal with a period of 22.4 days. Peak signal periodogram data to project Pale Red Dot is much closer to 11 days than 22 days. With this orbital period the planet lies inside a conservative area of life, which includes planets with periods from 4 to 15 days.
2) the orbital Period of new planet is 22.4 days. In favor of this option yet speaks only of the fact that in the published data of this variant, the first measurement of the radial velocity is higher than the second measurement, as in the previously presented scheme. At the same time the difference between these two schemes is much (much different the difference between the measurements and the measurement error). This planet falls in the optimistic (extended) life, which includes planets with periods from 4 to 27 days.
In General we can say that the first variant of the orbital period of new planet looks much more likely, as it speaks in his favor a greater number of arguments. Anyway, less than two weeks we will know which option is fair really.
One thing is clear, this opening will be historic. Without a doubt, in the future will discover millions and billions of planets around other stars, but at the same time the discovery of a twin Earth from the nearest star can be done only once. Besides, it’s obvious this discovery will make almost 100%-probable prediction that this planet will be the aim of the first flight of spaceship earth in the near future.
