
Orbital Determination for Proxima Centauri - japaget
http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=36843
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mirimir
In _The Three-Body Problem_ , Liu Cixin describes the orbit of Trisolaris
(Proxima b?) as chaotic. It's a major aspect of the plot. And this article
references Barnes et al. (2016) for the hypothesis that "a passage of Proxima
close to α Cen may have destabilized the original orbit(s) of Proxima’s
planet(s)". That's pretty cool!

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Zardoz84
Well, Asimov on Fondation and Earth, put a ocean like planet on Alfa.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_and_Earth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_and_Earth)

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impostervt
Summary: Proxima Centauri really does orbit Centauri A & B (which orbit each
other as a binary system). Before now it was suspected that Proxima Centauri
orbited the A/B pair, but the data wasn't completely convincing (it could have
just been swinging by, since it's "orbit" takes 1/2 million years).

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czbond
As someone interested in Astronomy - but not knowledgeable about the
specifics: "Why is this important"? (asking truthfully, not cheeky)

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jfoutz
There are some details in the article. Primarily insights about composition of
all three stars stars the stability of formation of planets.

I'm not an astronomer. But i'd encourage you to think about where Jupiter is
right now. Where will it be in an hour? Where will it be in 10,000 years? It's
not particularly important to know where Jupiter is. It doesn't really affect
tides, or seasons. But fine discrepancies in Jupiter's orbit can only be
explained with relativity. Careful measurement leads to great forecasts, new
theories, new science.

Now we know where Proxima Centauri will be in 550,000 years, and where it was
550,000 years ago. Right where it is now. Because it's actually in orbit. It's
not a stray merrily zipping by, like some asteroid flying past earth. It's
locked into orbit with the other two. It's like our moon.

It's probably not a big deal, just another note on some map. But people gather
up tens of thousands of those notes, look for little discrepancies, and find
new science. Which i think is pretty cool.

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andrewflnr
Great way to put it, especially the last paragraph. They say that the most
exciting phrase in science is "hey, that's funny...". Sometimes you have to
gather a lot of data before that can happen.

