Только что мои кореша из НАСЫ инфу секретную скинули.
Это сенсация! Мы не одни во Вселенной!
One of the most fascinating exoplanet findings of the past years is undoubtedly the
discovery of an Earth-mass exoplanet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. Alpha Cen Bb orbits
one component of the closest stellar system to the Earth and has the potential to
become a true Rosetta stone in exoplanet science, if its transiting nature were
revealed. In 2013, we observed Alpha Centauri B during 16 orbits with HST/STIS to
search for the transit of Alpha Cen Bb. We recently carried out in-depth photometric
analyses of this dataset that resulted in the clear detection of a transit-shaped
pattern. Several factors, however, prevent us from securing the planetary nature of
the signal found in the STIS time-series.
Now that we know where and when to look for, we propose to confirm the repeatability
of this signal and to firmly establish Alpha Cen Bb's existence and tighten its
physical and orbital properties. We base our observing strategy on the successful
approach employed just one year ago with the same instrument. Until Aug 9th 2014,
combination of HST available roll angles, Alpha Cen binary separation and position
angle will match the nearly-ideal configuration we had in July 2013. It would even
be possible to benefit from CVZ status from 24/7/2014 to 28/7/2014, in which one
transit of Alpha Centauri Bb is expected. HST/STIS is the only facility able to
confirm a transit from such a small planet at a high confidence level.
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