An Age of Magic

Could there be two earths out there?

Another Earth could be orbiting one of the Sun’s closest stellar neighbours.  Habitable rocky planets are likely to have formed in the Alpha Centauri system, a trio of stars 4.37 light years, or 25.8 trillion miles, away. And Astronomers are saying  if such worlds exist they could be detected using a dedicated telescope.

This could be great news for the human race to know that if we destroy this planet any further we might have alternative to go to.  Because it is so close, Alpha Centauri would probably be the first star system to be visited if interstellar travel ever becomes possible – a fact that has inspired numerous science fiction stories.  The three stars in the system are binary twins Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B and the much smaller and dimmer red dwarf, Proxima Centauri, which is a little nearer the Earth.

Anyone standing on a planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B would see two “suns” in the sky, a bright “primary” sun and a “secondary” sun which would be much weaker but still many times brighter than the full moon as seen from Earth.  Although Proxima Centauri is considered part of the same star system it is 0.21 light years from the other stars, or 13,000 times the distance between the Earth and the Sun. It would only be visible at night.

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