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Title:
An Earth-mass planet orbiting α Centauri B
Authors:
Dumusque, Xavier; Pepe, Francesco; Lovis, Christophe; Ségransan, Damien; Sahlmann, Johannes; Benz, Willy; Bouchy, François; Mayor, Michel; Queloz, Didier; Santos, Nuno; Udry, Stéphane
Affiliation:
AA(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland; Centro de Astrofìsica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, P-4150-762 Porto, Portugal), AB(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland; ), AC(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland), AD(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland), AE(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland), AF(Physikalisches Institut Universitat Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland), AG(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, UMR7095 CNRS, Université Pierre & Marie Curie, 98bis Boulevard Arago, F-75014 Paris, France), AH(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland), AI(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland), AJ(Centro de Astrofìsica da Universidade do Porto, Rua das Estrelas, P-4150-762 Porto, Portugal; Departamento de Fìsica e Astronomia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre s/n, P-4169-007 Porto, Portugal), AK(Observatoire de Genève, Université de Genève, 51 chemin des Maillettes, CH-1290 Sauverny, Switzerland)
Publication:
Nature, Volume 491, Issue 7423, pp. 207-211 (2012). (Nature Homepage)
Publication Date:
11/2012
Origin:
NATURE
Abstract Copyright:
(c) 2012: Nature Publishing Group, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited. All Rights Reserved.
DOI:
10.1038/nature11572
Bibliographic Code:
2012Natur.491..207D

Abstract

Exoplanets down to the size of Earth have been found, but not in the habitable zone--that is, at a distance from the parent star at which water, if present, would be liquid. There are planets in the habitable zone of stars cooler than our Sun, but for reasons such as tidal locking and strong stellar activity, they are unlikely to harbour water-carbon life as we know it. The detection of a habitable Earth-mass planet orbiting a star similar to our Sun is extremely difficult, because such a signal is overwhelmed by stellar perturbations. Here we report the detection of an Earth-mass planet orbiting our neighbour star α Centauri B, a member of the closest stellar system to the Sun. The planet has an orbital period of 3.236 days and is about 0.04 astronomical units from the star (one astronomical unit is the Earth-Sun distance).
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