VLT to Search for Planets in Alpha Centauri System

[kevindavis007]

ESO Signs Agreement with Breakthrough Initiatives


ESO, represented by the Director General, Tim de Zeeuw, has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives, represented by Pete Worden, Chairman of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and Executive Director of the Breakthrough Initiatives. The agreement provides funds for the VISIR (VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared) instrument, mounted at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) to be modified in order to greatly enhance its ability to search for potentially habitable planets around Alpha Centauri, the closest stellar system to the Earth. The agreement also provides for telescope time to allow a careful search programme to be conducted in 2019.


The discovery in 2016 of a planet, Proxima b, around Proxima Centauri, the third and faintest star of the Alpha Centauri system, adds even further impetus to this search.


Knowing where the nearest exoplanets are is of paramount interest for Breakthrough Starshot, the research and engineering programme launched in April 2016, which aims to demonstrate proof of concept for ultra-fast light-driven “nanocraft”, laying the foundation for the first launch to Alpha Centauri within a generation.


Read More: http://www.isn-news.net/2017/01/vlt-to-search-for-planets-in-alpha.html

[kevindavis007]

Space Ping!


@Oceander
@Sanguine
@Cripplecreek
@Freya
@EC
@Joe Wooten
@r9etb
@Just_Victor
@montanajoe
@Ghost Bear
@Free Vulcan
@Idaho_Cowboy
@geronl
@Scutter   

[Cripplecreek]

I dream of a day in the not so distant future when we get images of distant planets equal in quality to this one taken from the orbit of mars. And then the images will continue to get better.

[kevindavis007]

I dream of a day in the not so distant future when we get images of distant planets equal in quality to this one taken from the orbit of mars. And then the images will continue to get better.

I dream for the day that we see Earth outside from the Solar System..  ;) When it comes to space travel I think big.. Real big.

[Cripplecreek]

I dream for the day that we see Earth outside from the Solar System..  ;) When it comes to space travel I think big.. Real big.

I' with you on the big thinking. The ability to see a planet that could actually support complex life will be a major incentive.

[Oceander]

Now it's time to start cracking the time/distance barrier!  We broke the sound barrier, surely at some point we can break the light barrier!