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astronomyBack in October I wrote about Alpha Centauri B's first known planet, and associated discoveries about Alpha Centauri B. I talked about all the work that went into filtering out noise (redshift and blueshift from other sources) to find the signal from the planet.
Well, that was a very complex process, and some work since then has followed up and suggests that it may have gone awry, and there may not be a planet after all. Here's an article with more info:
No Planet of Alpha Centauri B?
It doesn't conclude for sure that there is no planet, but it casts doubt on the idea that there is; ultimately, more data will be needed to resolve the issue, and we might have to wait a while for that data, since the orbits of Alpha Centauri A and B are bringing them closer together in the sky from our point of view, which will make it impossible to study just the light of Alpha Centauri B without some light from Alpha Centauri A getting mixed in.
Well, that was a very complex process, and some work since then has followed up and suggests that it may have gone awry, and there may not be a planet after all. Here's an article with more info:
No Planet of Alpha Centauri B?
It doesn't conclude for sure that there is no planet, but it casts doubt on the idea that there is; ultimately, more data will be needed to resolve the issue, and we might have to wait a while for that data, since the orbits of Alpha Centauri A and B are bringing them closer together in the sky from our point of view, which will make it impossible to study just the light of Alpha Centauri B without some light from Alpha Centauri A getting mixed in.
