Hmm. Would that be before or after the nuclear waste dump on the Moon exploded…?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23594045/

On how we might get to Alpha Centauri.

If you can find it somewhere its also well worth reading :

* Croswell, Ken, “Is there Life around Alpha Centauri?” (Article in) Astronomy magazine, April 1991, Kalmbach publishing Co.

* Asimov, Isaac, ‘Alpha Centauri, The nearest star’, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Company, 1976

&

* Dole, Stephen, & Asimov, Isaac, Planets for Man [sic], New York, Random House, 1964.

Dole’s book includes a Rand study which estimated the chances of Alpha centauri A and B having habitable planets as :

A = 0.054 (1 =certainty I think)
B = 0.057
& combined = 0.107

Minor nitpicks or notes – Proxima Centauri is also Alpha Centauri C assuming its actually in orbit around theother two – which has been debated. If it is orbiting Alpha Cen A & B, its distance on average is the same as them – as Heinlein pointed out in his novel “Friday.”

Alternative names for Alpha Centauri incl. Rigil (or Rigel) Kentaurus, Toliman & Bungula.

My suggestion for planetary names should we find any is to use those alternative names ie. if we find four planets we call the innermost Rigil, the second from the star Kentaurus, the third Toliman and the outermost Bungula. Such system would make sense,continue tehtradition, be non-political and safe and also euphonious or nice sounding!

With Adelaide now having 9 days ** in a row (and with another week more heatwave to come) ** over 35 degrees Celsius

(dunno what that is in Fahrenheit – B*** hot!) today is one of those days I find myself wishing our Sun was less like Alpha Centauri A and more like Alpha Centauri B!

(But nothing like Proxima /Alpha cen C -taht’d justbe too cold! )
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BTW. Bad pun warning :

Qu. What is a boxer’s favoutrite spectral type?

Answer : KO!

“There is no, I repeat, no reason that an earth sized planet cannot form a stable orbit around a member of a binary, or even trinary star system.”

True. Indeed, I’ve read one astro- news piece suggesting planets are actually more common around multiple stars and a number of exoplanets have been detected already around binary stars notably 16 Cygni.

Then there’s this exoplanet : HD 188753 b or “Tatooine” – The first exoplanet found in a system with three stars. It orbits a G9 dwarf in 3.3 days with an orange dwarf binary beyond in an elliptical orbit ranging from 6 to 19 AU. The system lies 145 ly off in Cygnus.

With Adelaide now having 9 days over 35 degrees celscius (dunno what that is in Fahrenheit – B*** hot!) today is one of those days I find myself wishing our Sun was less like Alpha Centauri A* and more like Alpha Centauri B! +
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* Alpha Centauri A = a G2 yellow dwarf, 1.7 x the Sun’s brightness,
just a bit larger (10 % more massive), hotter and brighter than our
daytime star.

+ Alpha Centauri B = a K2 orange dwarf, a bit dimmer, cooler and
smaller than our Sun. It’s mass is 85 % of our Suns and it has 40 %
of the Sun’s brightness.

- Source : Page 15, Kaler, James B., “The Hundred Greatest Stars”,
Copernicus Books, 2002.