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Future observations

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A team of scientists think they can image Proxima Centauri b and probe the planet's atmosphere for signs of oxygen, water vapor, and methane, combining ESPRESSO and SPHERE on the VLT. The James Webb Space Telescope may be able to characterize the atmosphere of Proxima Centauri b, but there is no conclusive evidence for transits combining MOST and HATSouth photometry, giving it less than a 1 percent chance of being a transiting planet. Future telescopes (the Extremely Large Telescope, the Giant Magellan Telescope, and the Thirty Meter Telescope) could have the capability to characterize Proxima Centauri b. citation needed The discovery of Proxima b was significant to Breakthrough Starshot, a proof of concept project aiming to send a fleet of miniature probes to the Alpha Centauri system. The project is led by research company Breakthrough Initiatives, and plans to develop and launch a fleet of miniature unmanned spacecraft called StarChips, which could travel at up to 20% of the sp...
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Habitability

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The habitability of Proxima Centauri b has not been established, but the planet is subject to stellar wind pressures of more than 2,000 times those experienced by Earth from the solar wind. This radiation and the stellar winds would likely blow any atmosphere away, leaving the subsurface as the only potentially habitable location on that planet. The exoplanet is orbiting within the habitable zone of Proxima Centauri, the region where, with the correct planetary conditions and atmospheric properties, liquid water may exist on the surface of the planet. The host star, with about an eighth of the mass of the Sun, has a habitable zone between ∼0.0423–0.0816 AU. In October 2016, researchers at France's CNRS research institute stated that there is a considerable chance of the planet harboring surface oceans and having a thin atmosphere. However, unless the planet transits in front of its star from the perspective of Earth, it is difficult to test these hypotheses. Even though Proxima Cen...
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View from Proxima Centauri b

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Viewed from near the Alpha Centauri system, the sky would appear much as it does for an observer on Earth, except that Centaurus would be missing its brightest star. The Sun would be a yellow star of an apparent magnitude of +0.5 in eastern Cassiopeia, at the antipodal point of Alpha Centauri's current right ascension and declination, at 02h 39m 35s +60° 50′ (2000). This place is close to the 3.4-magnitude star ε Cassiopeiae. Because of the placement of the Sun, an interstellar or alien observer would find the \/\/ of Cassiopeia had become a /\/\/ shapenote nearly in front of the Heart Nebula in Cassiopeia. Sirius lies less than a degree from Betelgeuse in the otherwise unmodified Orion and with a magnitude of −1.2 is a little fainter than from Earth but still the brightest star in the Alpha Centauri sky. Procyon is also displaced into the middle of Gemini, outshining Pollux, whereas both Vega and Altair are shifted northwestward relative to Deneb (which barely moves, due to its ...
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