Every "closest EXOPLANET to Earth" from 1995-2024 | RECORD BREAKERS

[@MultiNacnud]

Nine years to get a reply isn't to bad. Try contacting the council to fill in potholes and see how long that takes.

[@thretlite]

And that's about average for a second-class post.

[@Studyinghumans]

10 years minimum

[@Joshua-by4qv]

One of the best things about this channel is that Dr. Becky names and credits the authors of the studies and shows the publication. What's really inspirational is how young so many of these researchers are.

[@daveh7720]

I've noticed most academics I see online are careful to give credit where it's due. I think it's great.

[@SgtGuarnereDD]

Hi Becky! I hear you mention the star GJ 876 in this video and refer to it as "Gilese 876", but I think it's actual name is "Gliese 876". Minor difference, but might make it easier for people who're interested and want to look up the star for themselves 🤗 Keep up the good work, I love your videos ❤

[@camerynmaru]

It's always a great day when it's another Dr. Becky video available. Love your stuff!

[@ghaznavid]

Have you read her book? Really well written, worth reading - she explains super complex stuff in a surprisingly simple way.

[@ramondulvur]

Some nitpicks: First exoplanets were discovered in 1992 by Aleksander Wolszczan and team around pulsar PSR B1257+12. There's no reason to discount that. The name Gliese, as in Gliese 876 and other objects in Gliese catalog come from a German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese. His name is pronounced [ˈɡliːzə]. There's audible E sound at the end. 51 Peg b shouldn't be referred to as just "Pegasi b". Neither should 47 UMa b referred to as "Ursae Majoris b". We are talking about planets around stars, not constellations. The numbers are important.

[@TheDanEdwards]

" a German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese. His name is pronounced [ˈɡliːzə]. "

[@pattheplanter]

@@TheDanEdwards Definitely not pronounced or written as Gilese, as Becky kept doing.

[@EnglishMike]

There is when you start the video explicitly limiting the list to exoplanets in orbit around regular stars.

[@theunknownunknowns256]

Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemists, but that's just peanuts to space. Douglas Adams

[@EnglishMike]

Belgium!

[@geoffmarcy677]

This video provides an accurate and compelling description of the first exoplanets ever discovered, and how we discovered them. Another excellent video. Thank you, Dr. Becky. (Yes, it has been 29 years since our discoveries of the first three exoplanets: 51 Pegasi, 70 Virginis, and 47 Ursae Majoris, in late 1995.)

[@versedi]

12:40 NO APPEARANCE BUT STILL WITH US IN SOUND. PRAISE CAT Awesome episode :)

[@Raven6794]

Another great video. I wish your enthusiasm and ability to explain science in an entertaining way could be taught to Australia’s science community. Interest in science would be so much higher.

[@MCsCreations]

Thanks for all the info, dr. Becky! 😊 Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊

[@turkalega]

Great video, but I think it misses the first exoplanets, which as first were also the closest to us at the time. After wiki: "On 9 January 1992, radio astronomers Aleksander Wolszczan and Dale Frail announced the discovery of two planets orbiting the pulsar PSR 1257+12". Sure, a pulsar isn't a typical star, but a star nonetheless :)

[@geoffmarcy677]

Absolutely correct. Good point.

[@sydhenderson6753]

@@geoffmarcy677 At one point she does mention that 51 Pegasi b was the first exoplanet found orbiting a normal star. But I immediately thought of the pulsar planets too.

[@takanara7]

Part of the problem might be that people weren't sure that they were actually planets, some people thought they might be brown dwarf companions. One major issue was at the time people thought big gas giant planets had to be far away from their suns, like they are in the solar system.

[@geoffmarcy677]

@@takanara7 True - Good point. The theorists told us that gas giant planets would all be far from the host star - at least 3x farther than Earth is from Sun. Hence, our discovery of the giant planet around 47 Ursae Majoris, at more than 2.1 AU from the star, convinced many people that we had actually discovered bona fide planets.

[@mpzrd]

There might as well be lots of rogue planets out there that we can't see yet and some of them might be pretty close

[@EnglishMike]

She did qualify the list of exoplanets at the beginning of the video as ones in orbit around a sun-like star. Thus she also omitted the very first exoplanets to be found which were in orbit around a neutron star.

[@qazsedcft2162]

It blows my mind that they can detect wobbles of a few meters per second at several light years of distance.

[@geoffmarcy677]

This is an astute point. Using the Doppler effect, we measure changes in the wavelengths of light with 8 significant digits. The formula is: Delta Lambda / Lambda = Velocity / c. So, 1 m/s is tiny compared to the speed of light, 3 x 10^8 m/s.

[@plektosgaming]

@@geoffmarcy677 Once we set up observational equipment in the future on The Moon or in deep space, we will easily gain another order of magnitude better results. 10 digit precision is certainly possible within our lifetimes.

[@fedfraud.protection.servic2557]

Is it possible to down convert the incoming wavefront and measure the phase shift on the longer wavelength, like in heterodyne receivers? I sometimes see high blue - indigo patches in my H-alpha photographers that aren't there in the master darks. I figure that the H-alpha is being modulated and I'm seeing sideband. 😂😂. Welcome any other ideas 💡.

[@fedfraud.protection.servic2557]

​@@geoffmarcy677Lick does have one awesome spectrum setup. 0.1 or even 0.01 nm or better. Not sure about Hubble or JWST. JWST is probably NIR.

[@geoffmarcy677]

@@plektosgaming Good idea! Our motto: Back Side of the Moon, or Bust!

[@gerryccarroll281]

Great video, clear explanations.

[@marcusdirk]

Dr. Becky balances a pen on her finger: that's going to be in the bloopers! 🙂

[@andrewcatlin3590]

We could eventually build something like the Breakthrough Starshot that could reach the proxima centaur in just around 20 years. Human space travel would still not be able to reach that 20% light speed but we could hopefully get images and other data back from not too far in the future

[@zvorenergy]

Thanks to relativity, the trip is shorter onboard. I believe at 1 g acceleration you could traverse the Universe in a lifetime.

[@plektosgaming]

@@zvorenergy At 99.99% C, you get roughly 5.17 days per "year", meaning you could travel 71YL per "year". Figuring a 50-60 year expected lifetime after training to be on a mission ( say, at 20 -25 ), you get about 4000LY. Anything longer would certainly require multi-generational ships or suspended animation or similar to be developed.

[@zvorenergy]

@@plektosgaming I predict no shortage of volunteers for one-way tickets aboard fleets of large, full gravity, comfortable, self-sufficient, rotating habitats outward bound. It's not for most people, but then explorers, scientists, and pioneers never are.

[@andrewcatlin3590]

@@zvorenergy that’s not how that works. 1 g of acceleration is essentially nothing compared to the relativistic speeds needed for time dilation. Unless your referring to a constant 1 g acceleration however this wouldn’t get you to relativistic speed due to energy constraints

[@zvorenergy]

@@andrewcatlin3590 yes that's assuming constant 1g

[@DJWHITE_]

Kipping is just about to start his JWST time for exo-moons and that’ll be huge if his team does too!

[@Valdagast]

Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. I read that the pivot point for the Earth-Sun system is like twenty metres from the center of the Sun, which really puts into prespective how absolutely _massive_ the Sun is.

[@tinathelasttwenty1249]

I ❤️ Ground News, I’ve been with Ground News for 3 years now and I still find news outlets that offers accurate information ❤

[@AnonymousFreakYT]

1:00 - Hey, we could find a rogue exoplanet in the Lagrange point between the Alpha Centauri system and our Sun! :-P

[@AlanZucconi]

Thank you for making this Becky! 🙏 I published my first "proper" video on KZbin back in 2019, and it was a 360-degree journey through all exoplanets discovered at the time! 🪐 Five years later, I find exoplanets one of the most fascinating topics in science! 🤩

[@pdxjeff1]

This stuff is amazing, can you imagine what we be true for over the next 100 years. I also, am excited that Kepler-167 is the target for JWST today. Department of Astronomy, Columbia University's JWST approval project.

[@carlettoburacco9235]

The best "advertising" for the search for exoplanets remains in my opinion the "singing sky" of NASA-JPL. Especially when it comes to the cacophony of notes around tiny search clusters where there are not enough pixels to put all the planets. Maybe we will not get there in a short time and quickly, but there is certainly no shortage of targets.

[@WilliamHensley1963]

awesome clip. thanks for including the example of how long it would take the Parker Solar Probe to get there as a point of reference!

[@qazsedcft2162]

Just a little nitpick about the speed of the Parker probe. Technically, it doesn't count as the fastest because it's still gravitationally bound to the Sun. It's like dropping a rock from a tall mountain, measuring the speed of the rock when it reaches the bottom, and then claiming you can throw a rock that fast. The actual fastest object we have thrown out of the solar system is Voyager 1 and it's only moving at about 17 km/s.

[@patryn36]

Here is a counter to your nitpick, the parker probe did not fall directly into that orbit, they used gravity assists to alter speed and direction plus they used a booster to get it out of earth's orbit. Also, all speeds are estimates since the sun is orbiting the galaxy and the galaxy itself is likely moving. To get a realistic speed value you need a stationary reference point to measure as zero and with the universe being like it is finding a stationary object is going to be next to impossible if not completely impossible.

[@kaseyboles30]

@@patryn36 There is no zero motion in the universe. ALL motion is relative and which of two object who's distance between them is changing is the moving one or indeed if only one is moving, depends on your reference frame. This is fundamental to relativity and all experiments to date are consistent with relativity. Therefore you a free to pick any item as your stationary reference point. The sun is a valid choice.

[@Coops12241]

Voyager 1 used gravity assists as well.

[@qazsedcft2162]

@@patryn36 If you used the same gravity assists to make a solar escape trajectory the speed would be in the 10-15 km/s not the hundreds that it achieves only at perihelion. Your argument about universal speed is silly. All that matters if you want to travel to another star is your relative velocity to that star. BTW, an interesting fact is that nearby stars are actually travelling at similar speeds to our fastest probes - about 10s of km/s. With our current technology it would be faster to wait for a star to fly by us than to send a probe there. 🤣

[@takanara7]

New Horizons' velocity is 23 km/s, which is more then 17. Also, in order to get close to the sun you need to cancel out the earth's orbital velocity of 29km/s, so still takes a ton of energy to get close to the sun.

[@kevinL5425]

What warps my mind is if I could travel there at 99% the speed of light, for people on Earth it would take me about 4.29 years, but for me the trip would only be about 7.26 months due to time dilation. (At least if the AI I asked gave me the right answer)

[@michaelsommers2356]

You don't use AI to answer questions such as that. It's a simple calculation using high-school algebra.

[@aimanrazi4254]

Thanks Becky for keeping my interest in Astrophysics❤❤ I would do anything to become like you in the future❤❤

[@Jatheus]

Love it! Eridani was featured in "Project Hail Mary" by Andy Weir. Great book! More recently, I read "The Sparrow", which is about the discovery of intelligent life on one of Proxima's planets and a mission to visit the aliens. I don't know if the tech they used to get there was plausible or not, but they used an asteroid as a vehicle (they built crew compartment facilities on it) and a "mass driver", whatever that is, to get up to relativistic speeds that got them there in 6 months crew time (26 years for Earth). I think they were essentially using the mass of the asteroid as propellant? Anyway, it was an interesting book. So... the only chance of finding a closer planet is our very own planet 9? If it is there? I don't suppose rogue planets would really qualify since they wouldn't be bound to a nearby system. Fun stuff! :0)

[@SelbyRadabah]

Love it that you show the bloopers!

[@TheOldBlackCrow]

Love the video! Just listened to a great conversation between Sam Harris and Sara Imari Walker about astrobiology and physics... Great week for brain expansion!

[@swampnutz]

Really wish they had pointed the JWST at the 10 closest rocky exoplanets in the habitable zones of their stars.

[@takanara7]

You have to wait for them to pass in front of their stars in order to get spectra, you can't just do it whenever you want.

[@EnglishMike]

@@takanara7 If they can pin down the transit times accurately enough, they might have a go, but there's a lot of competition for observation time on JWST.

[@Morbius907]

There will be a new closest exoplanet in the future. Barnard's star, which has an exoplanet, will make its closest approach to Earth in the year 11,800 at a distance of 3.85 light-years.

[@thomasleathrum7156]

51 Pegasi b was not the first exoplanet found, it was the first exoplanet found in orbit around a sun-like star. The first exoplanet found was in orbit around a pulsar, PSR B1257+12 -- to be fair, that makes this particular exoplanet a freakishly inhospitable place, but it is still an exoplanet. Just wanted to be clear about the exoplanet record.

[@EnglishMike]

_"51 Pegasi b ... was the first exoplanet found in orbit around a sun-like star."_ That's exactly what she said, which is why she left out the ones around the pulsar.

[@rickseiden1]

What blows my mind is that there could be a civilization out there that is looking at the Sun and seeing it wobble deducing that there's an "Earthlike" planet in the habitable zone.

[@francesw.6774]

If they could detect the ever-increasing levels of CO2 in our atmosphere, they would probably roll their eyes and go, "Oh, it's one of those kind of planets".

[@plektosgaming]

@@francesw.6774 All planets go through the same stages, most likely. The trick is do we nuke ourselves, AI get rid of us, or we die from genetic experimentation and/or cross-species contamination first? If we can get past these major obstacles, we're likely good for the next few thousand years.

[@daveh7720]

@@francesw.6774 I wonder what they think of our "I Love Lucy" and "Star Trek" reruns they're getting on their radio telescopes.

[@michaelsommers2356]

And concluding that there is no intelligent life on that planet.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@daveh7720 It's not likely that aliens could receive our TV signals. Broadcasters don't waste money sending their signals into space; they limit them to where their potential viewers are. The local car dealer isn't going to pay to have his ads beamed to Proxima Centauri. He wants them to go to people who might buy his cars.

[@TomLeg]

So they just launched the Europa Clipper which will get there in ten years or so. What are the ground crew doing in the meantime? Would make a good video. Maybe team up with Smarter Every Day Destin!

[@silentwilly2983]

Have a little bit of patience, Proxima Centauri is approaching us, in about 26000 years it will only be about 3.1 lightyears away. Combine that with a bit of technological improvement to say 10% of lightspeed and you can do a return trip within a life time.

[@michaelsommers2356]

In a lifetime if you set out when you're a baby. And, due to radiation and the other dangers of interstellar travel, your lifetime is likely to be very short.

[@SolaceEasy]

Planets unbound to stars could be closer to us than the Proxima Centauri system. I have seen such discussed recently. Detections now are limited to transits of known stars.

[@fedfraud.protection.servic2557]

I think that might be in error. Alpha Centauri is the nearest Star to Sol.

[@fedfraud.protection.servic2557]

Unbound. Sorry. My error.😂😂. How are we gonna detect them?

[@EnglishMike]

Right but if you watch the start of the video again, she limits her talk to planets in orbit around sun-like stars.

[@csh43166]

I love that simulation of the multiple planet system going around its star. For some reason, I just find it fascinating!!

[@Khyranleander]

"Closest exoplanet" still might change. In theory IAU might someday officially include planemos, & one _might_ eventually drift closer than 4 light years. Not holding my breath. (IMO, all space rocks are planets, just have size categories & a handful of other special labels like life-bearing "world".)

[@Flesh_Wizard]

If they have icy moons in an elliptical orbit, the moons may have life inside them. Like a rotten, icy egg with bacteria inside

[@nickdumas2495]

As soon as a second planet is discovered in the system, then the closest known exoplanet will change on a weekly basis as they orbit at different speeds.

[@EnglishMike]

But they still wouldn't be included in this video -- watch her spell out her criteria at the start of the video.

[@J3AD]

great video, thank you

[@PtolemyJones]

How can they tell the difference in the wobble created by one planet and more than one?

[@geoffmarcy677]

The possibility of several planets is always on our mind. But if so, each planet must have a different distance from the star (to avoid collision) and thus must have a different orbital period. Each planet will yank gravitationally on the star causing a different period in the Doppler shift of the star's light. So, in such cases, we detect multiple periodicities in the Doppler shifts, all superimposed on each other.

[@wallykramer7566]

Speaking if Brit pronunciation, consider the word _idea_ which Becky says in this video. She says it with an _R_ sound near the end. Is Becky less erudite that other Brits? Hard to tell from just a few hundred of her videos. But I would suspect it is British pronunciation is the overriding problem!

[@michaelsommers2356]

That's not a specifically British pronunciation. I've heard a number of Americans use it, too.

[@dardo1982]

I'd really love to communicate with you... 🤗

[@uni-byte]

Hmm, the other 5 of the 10 closest planets are just further out. We could go to 20 too. All the planets in The Milky Way are closer than those in Andromeda, and they are the only ones in The Milky Way that are closer than the ones in Andromeda - TADAAAA! What do I win? Besides a bad opening line, I love your stuff!

[@chijanofuji]

It's Gliese 876b, not Gilese 876b, that orbits the star Gliese 876. Gliese [pronounced GLEE-zə in English] , named after the German astronomer Wilhelm Gliese (1915-1993), from his "Catalogue of Nearby Stars".

[@Odin029]

I know it's not scientific, but I like the name 'wobble method'.

[@geoffmarcy677]

Inferring the existence, the orbital period, and even the mass of a planet simply by the "wobble" of the star remains a remarkable technique!

[@EnglishMike]

Someone else in the comments hates the name so much they quit watching, and took the time to express their disgust at such condescension. (I kid you not!)

[@geoffmarcy677]

@@EnglishMike The reason I called it "The wobble method" back in the 1983 when I used it to search for brown dwarf companions is that our Jupiter yanks gravitationally on the Sun, causing it to move only the distance of the radius of the Sun. So, the Sun merely pirouettes around a point near the surface of the Sun.

[@defdaz]

Depressing af ending Dr. Becky! ;)

[@WWeronko]

My own interest is Kapteyn's Star's planet Kapteyn b. As the oldest-known potentially habitable planet, estimated to be 11 billion years old, in the habitable zone in a relatively nearby star (13 light-years away), it had much time to develop life. Perhaps even technological life. Being a super-Earth it might have been able to retain an atmosphere from the known temperamental nature of class M1 red subdwarfs. Kapteyn's Star may once have been member of Omega Centauri, a globular cluster that was gravitationally stripped from Omega Centauri by the Milky Way. Globular clusters in general and Omega Centauri, in particular are very old structures and had much time for civilizations to form in them.

[@lanimulrepus]

I have not heard much discussion about "wobbly" for many years... Of course, according to Dr Who, if you can fit "wibbly" into the discussion, we'd be getting close to talking about scalar curvature coefficients and dimensions of the Blue Box...

[@hw3707]

Dr. Becky, I have a hypothetical argument that challenges your statement, "There won’t be another that holds the title" of the closest exoplanet to Earth. Imagine a stellar-mass black hole located nearer to us than Proxima Centauri b, with a planet orbiting it. Such a planet would be difficult to detect since the black hole doesn’t emit light, making it nearly impossible to spot through traditional methods of observation.

[@EnglishMike]

Sure, but she was talking explicitly about exoplanets in orbit around Sun-like stars. There's also the possibility that rogue planets could be discovered closer, but they won't be in orbit around a Sun-like star.

[@michaelsommers2356]

But we would be able to detect a black hole that close to us, if only because of gravitational lensing.

[@neoanderson7]

Space is always truly humbling. 🙂 If we ever get to maybe the 2500’s or the 2600’s, we might be close to throwing something remotely close to the speed of light. Hopeful! 🤞🏻👏🏻😎

[@seraphuziel]

just 4.5 away sounds so deceptively close, thanks science fiction! :D interesting nail color.

[@SirHeinzbond]

Hello Dr. Becky i would love to hear you talking about known "Rogue" Planets out there too...hard to find any content about them that is not related to speculation...

[@daveh7720]

Tim over at Acapella Science needs to update his exoplanet medley, Whole New Worlds.

[@Ithirahad]

The headlines about how SpaceX allegedly was grabbing Falcon Heavy with huge arms are funny. Those boosters are not designed for that, do not have enough control, and the steering fins would probably cave into the top of the rocket if you tried anyway because they're only designed to handle aerodynamic forces and not literally being manhandled by a giant robot.

[@michaelsommers2356]

They don't use the fins to catch the rockets. There are protuberances on the body of the rocket that they use for that.

[@TheCrosshare]

Some of these planets are definetaly worth getting...exoited about :D Ok, i'll get me coat.

[@ferengiprofiteer6908]

That manhole cover we shot into space ahead of a nuclear blast wave is bound to be the fastest thing we've made.

[@davidcerutti8795]

I am Lrrr, ruler of the plant Omicron Pegasi B!

[@tomasetter7686]

Thank you for saying the speed of light in m/s. It somehow made me happy😅

[@BlunderMunchkin]

I still remember reading about the first exoplanet discovery in the New York Times. Paper edition, of course.

[@MelindaGreen]

A 9 year roundtrip communication lag is not really a big deal because each civilization can immediately start sending information they believe might interest the other one. Answers to specific questions will just be one tiny part of that information, and will likely often be old news by the time they arrive.

[@michaelsommers2356]

But their politicians will have to spend years deciding whether to answer any messages the receive, so the round trip time will be, say, fifty years.

[@EnglishMike]

@@michaelsommers2356 I doubt that, once they realize it really doesn't matter what we tell them. If they have the capability of visiting us, they've already known we're here for decades, and probably hundreds of years, from studying Earth with far better telescopes than we currently have.

[@EnglishMike]

Yeah, it will be a two-way overlapping stream of information.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@EnglishMike Why do you think alien politicians will be any more sensible than human ones?

[@netopir3804]

All of the exoplanets defined to be in a habitable zone are far from being habitable for us. Most are much too cold, some are not rocky at all, but gaseous, we have no idea if they contain liquid water, let alone a breathable atmosphere. Considering the waste universe, this is not surprising … we cannot expect the garden of Eden to be just some few light years away.

[@EnglishMike]

We look for the ones we can currently detect. As our detection methods improve, we will eventually start detecting Earth-twins -- rocky planets in the habitable zone.

[@plektosgaming]

The time it takes to get there with our current technology would be a bit over 7 years, including time to slow down. Our issue is the propulsion system. That calculation assumes a constant 1G acceleration for about a year to get to 90% of the speed of light. Then you coast and repeat the process to slow down.So it's merely a matter of figuring out how to get the propulsion and fuel worked out. Obviously you need something self-generating like a fusion power plant (or possibly an entire fuel plant?), though solar sails and other methods have been proposed to help the process. I suspect this will be normal activity within 100-200 years.

[@EnglishMike]

We don't have the means to get anywhere with our current technology. Just because it's theoretically feasible, doesn't mean it's actually doable. The energy budget alone is insane. Also, fusion could take another century or more before it's even practical for commercial use here on Earth.

[@TechnicalBard]

Proxima Centauri b may be where the plans for the hyperspace bypass are posted

[@Luke-qj5jn]

Yep, we will die alone on this planet...😑

[@francesw.6774]

Well, it's a pretty awesome planet with plenty of company, are at least it is until we completely f--k it up.

[@UncleBildo]

Wish there were some folks with $30B or so to throw together for a project. Multi-spectral probe continually sending and obtaining data for it's 150 year or whatever flight at the least would teach us a alot....... Stack enough boosters, and program enough slingshots around our heavy bodies, you'd think they could work up some major speed...... I couldn't do that math with calculator or fingers and toes, and I'm down to 5 toes... if that doesn't become our first apex interstellar transit, we might miss the boat.

[@Leyrann]

I think I've caught an error of the kind where you've always been reading it wrong: It's "Gliese", not "Gilese" in that particular catalogue of stars (probably named after a telescope or scientist?). The L comes before the i.

[@geoffmarcy677]

Yes. Wilhelm Gliese painstakingly cataloged all of the stars within 25 parsecs (that were known). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gliese_Catalogue_of_Nearby_Stars

[@PhilW222]

The more I think about it, the more unlikely intersteller travel would be for ANY civilisation, however technically advanced. The distances are just so vast, and the energy and resources required to cross it are just so enormous.

[@michaelsommers2356]

Not to mention the risks inherent in interstellar travel, such as radiation and pebbles just going through space. Even a grain of dust at a significant fraction of the speed of light carries enough energy to do significant damage. But I think space junk in orbit around the planet is the biggest threat. We've been sending stuff into space for less than seventy years, and junk is already a real problem. Imagine what it will be like by the time we develop interstellar travel. I think that is the answer to the Fermi Paradox.

[@EnglishMike]

@@michaelsommers2356 Most of the space junk in LEO, which is the greatest threat today, would clear out naturally (orbital decay) within 25 years if there was a moratorium on new launches, and the relative speed any interstellar ship would be traveling soon after launch would mean anything higher up in orbit could easily be avoided or too small to cause catastrophic damage. On the other hand, any speck of dust that hits an interstellar craft going at a significant percentage the speed of light (say 20%) would strike with such force it would likely destroy the ship in an instant, and then there's the issue with all the high energy cosmic rays that would kill the electronics onboard, not to mention cause major health risks to the crew. The heavy shielding required to reduce those risks would make the trip orders of magnitude more difficult. It's the extreme distances and dangers of interstellar space that's by far the most difficult barrier to expansion.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@EnglishMike You have to go through LEO to go anywhere else. And there won't be a moratorium on launches, until they become too dangerous. That things in higher orbits could be easily avoided or would cause insignificant damage is just wishful thinking. Certainly radiation and debris make interstellar travel very dangerous, if not totally impractical, but space junk is not insignificant, especially after we've been putting stuff in orbit for a few centuries.

[@tatotato85]

The autor pictures are great

[@Flesh_Wizard]

Dimidium (51 Pegasi b) is one of my favourite planets

[@jimmeade2976]

Fun Question: Is it a Blooper that Dr Becky's hair keeps moving from one side to the other during the video? Serious Question: Why do they theorize only one planet? Isn't it possible that several smaller planets could be causing the same wobble in the star?

[@geoffmarcy677]

Excellent question! The possibility of several planets is always on our mind. But if so, each planet must have a different distance from the star (to avoid collision) and thus must have a different orbital period. Each planet will yank gravitationally on the star causing a different period in the Doppler shift of the star's light. So, in such cases, we detect multiple periodicities in the Doppler shifts, all superimposed on each other.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@geoffmarcy677 What if the second planet is at L4 or L5? Not likely, of course, but conceivable.

[@geoffmarcy677]

@@michaelsommers2356 We would be fooled! It is difficult to distinguish between one planet and two planets locked in L4 or L5. Good point! And not impossible!

[@EnglishMike]

Some researchers have already claimed they can detect more than one planet around Proxima Centauri, but the results have not been confirmed yet.

[@michaelsommers2356]

@@geoffmarcy677 Thanks for the reply. Assuming those were the only planets in the system, would it be possible at all to distinguish them? I suppose it might be possible if there were other planets.

[@martynspooner5822]

So it could be true that old wobbly Bob was really an alien who sussed how to move at the speed of light but passed himself off as an old drunk probably because he didnt need the hassle. I never believed him and now I learn the cleverest people just look out for the wobble. Wow me and my sceptical nature, gutted.

[@richardschorel6578]

Hi Dr Becky.. I'd love to visit and watch the stars with you on a wall size Tv thingy..xo

[@dufusnoname]

I have to wonder if Dr. Becky has ever read the Bobiverse books :)

[@pokechopachunky2905]

My sister's son stayed with us while she was deployed and he is terrified of the dark. So we spent two light years with him until she returned 😂😂

[@jerryhatley5004]

…it will be many generations in the future before we can shake a hand (tentacle?) of a fellow cosmic traveler but I hope we can at the very least somehow communicate with one before I die to prove we are not alone…gets awfully lonely out here in the boondocks of a rather mundane galaxy….

[@richardl6751]

Slight correct: the Parker solar probe can go 191 kilometers per second.

[@strikercwl]

"Habital zone" is a bit of stretch given the insane amount of radiation a Red Dwarf blast their planets with.

[@gnorman-ct2lt]

They need to quit screwing around in space and start hitting some real speed records with the same enthusiasm they had breaking the sound barrier.(Nuclear)

[@JynxedKoma]

Pegasi, you 'avin' a wobble, m8?

[@greg-op2jh]

Some of these people in the comments are little picky poos! Enjoy the video yall. She does amazing work! Quit being ridiculous.❤

[@leematthews6812]

I should imagine any aliens watching our news channels wouldn't be in a rush to communicate with the planet of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Zedong etc.

[@MrCharliejaera]

Interesting👌

[@Ketris0]

Doesn't it seem more likely that these **very** massive planets detected via the wobble method are actually the combined data of an entire planetary system being detected? The masses would sum together, and the motion would average out.

[@TheDanEdwards]

" and the motion would average out."

[@michaelsommers2356]

That would be detectable, due to the different periods of planets in different orbits. They look for things like that.

[@TheCronedoggy]

Any chance of a rogue planet coming closer to Earth?

[@Flesh_Wizard]

The chances are so small that it's called a "non-zero chance"

[@pattheplanter]

@@Flesh_Wizard Until we can detect rogue planets reliably, there is no way of calculating the probability. There is a chance.

[@beautifulsmall]

cheese and Biscuits. black pepper and poppy seeds in oat. RedFox Chedar and Goosnasgh Gold. The French will always find something wobbeling first, Like Maigret in the selubrious estableshments.

[@kiwiphoenix]

Hi Becky, from New Zealand, just wondering if there might be any Callenders on the market in the stars 🌟

[@sebastianhuvenaars6537]

Would be cool (and slightly scary) when Euclid spots a rogue plannet to snatch the title 🙂

[@pattheplanter]

Nearest black hole could get interesting.

[@francesw.6774]

So at Parker Solo Probe speed, all we need to do is build a self-sustaining spacecraft, with a crew size and make-up capable of perpetually reproducing, and in just a matter of approximately 256 generations (7688 /30) humans could arrive at Proxima Centauri. Though it would be a bit of a disappointment to pay a house call after all those years and find that no one is home.

[@wyrmhand]

In what video did You announce that You had become Dr. Becky? I remember it but cant find it 🤔

[@michaelsommers2356]

Dr. Becky had her PhD before she ever appeared on KZbin.

[@kilroy987]

If we could get a craft to even half the speed of light by some form of constant ion propulsion, would relativity keep the wear of the craft smaller, since universe time is passing more slowly for it? That also means objects wear less around a black hole and close to the sun, too, due to the gravity wells. Hmm.

[@EnglishMike]

Time dilation doesn't really kick in until much closer to the speed of light. If you want to cut your (experienced) travel time in half, you have to travel at 86.6% the speed of light. Cutting the travel time to a quarter requires close to 97% the speed of light.

[@pattheplanter]

It would age more slowly but it might be hitting dust at half the speed of light which would wear most materials quite quickly.

[@michaelsommers2356]

At 0.5 c, time passes about 20% more slowly than it does at rest, so a forty-year trip would appear to you to take thirty-two years. Not a significant saving.

[@_nemo171]

We are almost ready to contaminate other beings with our culture, wars and fears.

[@philplasma]

I just wonder what life would be like on any of the Proxima Centauri planets when that star reaches perihelion with the Alpha Centauri pair of stars it orbits.

[@pattheplanter]

A three body problem for an inhabited planet, it has been speculated in fiction. Netflix even made a series of the book.

[@romado59]

Proxima orbital acceleration is too high to be bounded, but it is. Matthews, Gilmore 1993 Is Proxima really in orbit about alpha and beta. mon. Not Royal Astro Soc., Vol.261, 1,L5-L7

[@primoroy]

Still no AstroCat! 😥

[@phild8095]

It isn't about visiting and learning, it is about finding another planet where we can go and cut down forests, grow crops, mine the minerals and ruin the ecology of this other planet.

[@edwardkreahling4383]

geeze, kinda of a downer view.

[@oswaldkienapfel8299]

Doppler effect or Wobble?

[@Jesus.the.Christ]

We might find a starless planet closer than Alpha Centauri...

[@danger2bananas]

I'm hoping we discover a moon/planet and we call it Acheron or lv426 😂

[@davidbroman8391]

Probably one of the best explanations of Doppler shift and exoplanet detection I have ever seen.