Searching for Habitable Planets at Alpha Centauri with the TOLIMAN Mission

We know about thousands of exoplanets by now. But it's still a mystery, whether there are planets in the Alpha Centauri binary system, which is just next door to us. My guest today, Professor Peter Tuthill, is the Mission Leader for the TOLIMAN Telescope mission, which is designed to find those answers.
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00:00 Intro
01:29 Are there planets at Alpha Centauri
08:22 How can we know they are there
11:20 TOLIMAN Telescope
30:04 JWST experiments
37:34 Next big telescopes for planet hunting
48:38 Discovering many more exoplanets
51:50 Next generation of instruments
59:05 Outro
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[@LadyMoonweb]

When I was a child, Alpha Centauri was never referred to as 'right next door'. We may not be properly out there quite yet, but the universe is already shrinking and that's a very encouraging thought.

[@thingsandstuffwithinmebrai5938]

This was one of your best in terms of the structure and how you went about it. Asking the right questions and pushing back (gently) when needed. And for the record guys, FC was not interrupting, it was the poor connection, as stated near the beginning 🙂😉

[@swiftycortex]

Thank you Fraser Cain & Professor Peter Tuthill

[@girolamocastaldo8653]

We need more of these highly focused missions

[@ApteraEV2024]

I see what u did there, Laser❤🎉

[@wavemaker54]

Very informative and interesting interview / conversation. Thanks for sharing this information. Intriguing.

[@Nethershaw]

I positively love the thinking that made this mission possible. I have so many questions for Professor Tuthill. You're looking for oscillations in the transversal plane -- could you use a kind of time-based interferometry to single out modes that aren't shared in common between the A and B components of the system? If you're using a cubesat form factor, could you improve your resolution or data quality by fusing the signals from multiple instances of the telescope? Also can I work for him? I am a computer scientist and systems engineer and I would love to work on a piece of software that could perform the signal analysis on that fascinating aperture masking interferometer. Satellite control systems for swarms of telescopes! Maybe I should go back to school for astronomy. I can't get enough of this news.

[@jondoc7525]

Just do it and give it to him is the best resume I bet

[@Flowmystic]

These interviews on space progress are the new guided-meditation tapes. Fantastic stuff.

[@davidgiltinan480]

Absolutely fascinating interview! I really loved his peek into the (Hopefully) near future potential of smaller. distributed, linked telescopes. Really exciting!

[@ElitePhotobox]

An Ultraviolet Telescope might work better, as it would have a higher resolution as the wave length is narrower and should allow You to see smaller object, providing there is not to much dust or gas in the way.

[@jimcabezola3051]

I really admire the laser-focused mission this represents.

[@AvyScottandFlower]

Thanks to those generous funders for their scientific interest

[@ematthew71]

Fantastic Guest & Interview! Love the topic too

[@201042Bob]

Thanks so much for doing what you do ,wonderful interviews, shows ,new info ,on and on !!

[@leeFbeatz]

❤ what an interview!!! Much love Canadian brother 🙏🌹❤️💯🌻

[@edwinlegaspi6832]

Omg! This was my question from one of your Q&As!🎉😊

[@davecurtis8833]

Great interview Fraser. Alpha Cen was always my favourite star when I was a kid as I could resolve the binary from down here in NZ.

[@stuartcarter7053]

Loved this interview

[@BoyKissBoy]

Great interview! (As always, frankly 😊)

[@jdbrinton]

We really need a lunar based interferometer. That would solve a lot of problems.

[@sunsaverfromnhh9184]

Incredible news, and seems like they got the right man for the job. As a life-long sci-fi fan myself- i just wanted to recommend "Space Paw" by Gordon R. Dickson- if you can find it and have not read it yet. It's a really fun read with a very heart-warming conclusion. (I would say "happy ending"- but this is not a nail salon that specializes in "discounts for University Professors and US Air Force pilots..."- lol. Keep up the good work!

[@chris-terrell-liveactive]

Intriguing and fascinating, great to hear some of the more detailed considerations such as questions over the gravitational stability of a binary star environment and the possible consequences for planet formation.. thank you.

[@Big.Ron1]

This is the type of science that I can get behind. It is very well explained. Taken with an open mind this may show more than hoped for. However it is my opinion all 3 stars should be looked at in this way, not just A&B. But, who am I. Thank you both. Be safe.

[@janetdaenzer8247]

I love that we are talking about such distant and inexplicable phenomenons and we can have problems with internet! Its crazy😂

[@joris-rietveld]

Very interesting interview

[@Corvaire]

As usual, great interview! ;O)-

[@DustinDriver]

Back in college I interviewed Geoff Marcy (turned out to be a real piece of work) about his team's discovery of some of the first extrasolar planets in 1998-ish. They were using the "wobble" method back then to identify supermassive Jupiter-like planets. Pretty neat.

[@JenniferA886]

Great vid 👍👍👍

[@lenwhatever4187]

"we've got three here, in the habitable zone, so I like those odds." Except there are perhaps _more_ habitable planets/moons outside the habitable zone of our solar system than either Mars or Venus. Of course even then, the almost planets and moons around Saturn or Jupiter are no more habitable than the moon. So maybe not such great odds. Something in the "habitable zone" merely means most likely to be Venus or Mars like rather than Earth like, not habitable at all. However, all that aside. What would be useful for the expansion of humanity or life if you prefer. Would be lots of gravel lumps or piles that could be turned into country sized habitats and/or harvested for whatever things are needed to keep going. Any Earth like planet, is already taken, it already has life on it. Either we will take it over, or keep it like a zoo. We have four or more planets here we can play with to try to bring to life: Venus, The Moon, Mars, Some of the largest asteroids in the belt. Maybe even Mercury could be. If we can't do it here, it won't happen there either. It will mean inoculating these planets with life on purpose. Yes it will take a long time but really, a trip to other systems will take as long or longer anyway. Even if the people on board don't feel all of that time, humanity here will wait all of that time for the results... and some sort of pay back for the resources put into the trip in the first place. So any large chunks of rock, even if like Venus, at least point to smaller gravel piles that are more suitable for life... as we (will?) know it. A messy system is good.

[@alphamegaman8847]

"Fascinating"!😁👍 Thank you Both! Mike in San Diego.🌞🎸🚀🖖

[@ElitePhotobox]

Creating a lot of mini cube sat telescopes and put them in to orbit around the moon and earth, then create a data link and photograph the target with all of them at the same time ! with an atomic clock in each ? the photos can be stacked on top of each other to get a better photo !

[@GantchoG]

Very good interview and channel. Working on this mission currently and we're expecting a Q4 launch!

[@frasercain]

So excited for the results. Let me know when you find planets.

[@GantchoG]

Will do!@@frasercain

[@davesilkstone6912]

It ages since I did any telecope maths but doesn't a longer focal length give you a higher resolution? If so why not make a cubesat with a 'smaller' primary mirror but have a secondary mirror at a longer distance than is practicable on Earth? This way we could detect the wobble of stars far easier.

[@Nefertiti0403]

Peter is so Eccentric 😬🤓😎

[@benmcelwain5301]

Fantastic! I am very pleased that we are finally looking at reachable goals. Don't get me wrong. Looking at galaxies 13 billion lightyears away is fine but photons are all we are ever likely to get from such distant objects.

[@ReedCBowman]

Fraser - Does this exist? It occurs to me there ought to be a term in the exoplanetology field for not just the habitable zone, but the 1AU-equivalent distance from a star. So you could say that one Goldilocks Unit at Sol is 1AU, 150 million km. But then around an M, 1GU would be much less. And the difference in AU Equivalent or Goldilocks Unit would serve as a quick way of thinking about the biologically meaningful difference among stars. It would also, probably most helpfully, enable you to say that you found a planet at 1.1GU (or 1.1AUE) around another star, and you'd have some sense of its relationship to the Habitable Zone with a very simple, single number.

[@tryhardfpv5351]

Could you use an asteroid transiting a nearby star as a star shade to view it's planets?

[@ApteraEV2024]

11:30 Fraiser!😂 What is IT!?❤😂🎉

[@ElitePhotobox]

I've been to Alpha Centauri using Gaia Sky ! 😀

[@archmage_of_the_aether]

Did all the Alpha Centauri stars develop together, or did they come together afterwards? If a star with planets subsequently becomes paired in a binary, will the planets get thrown away, destroyed, etc?

[@roccov3614]

I can't help but see a similarity to the DART mission. It was chosen because it was easier to measure the wobble with 2 masses near each other. Seems like we are doing the same with Alpha Cens binary system. I'm also excited by the idea of making a smaller, cheaper mission that is perfectly adapted to a specific task and it can perform this one task better than any of the larger more expensive general missions.

[@originalmin]

Hey Fraser, FYI the Spotify version of this interview is only the first 8 minutes

[@frasercain]

I reuploaded a new version yesterday, so if you can delete the one and then play the new one?

[@dougsinthailand7176]

What’s the chance that one planet would stabilize itself at the stars’ mutual barycenter? It would be very hard to detect.

[@Sonic_Shroom]

Given the naming convention of telescopes do you think that we will end up with one called the "bigger than the last one" telescope?

[@leejc288]

Question, is it possible to estimate how many other elements might be out in the universe? Maybe some of them are prefect for fueling interstellar travel.

[@nielsandersen6164]

As for oversaturating the sensor… couldn’t you use something like an LCD to make a very simple “tunable coronagraph”?

[@hiramhill1305]

Since Alpha Centauri A and B orbit each other in elliptical orbits, seen from an angle to appear even more elliptical, is there a preferred time to watch their orbits around each other?

[@christycoffman]

It's propellor head Christmas in propellor head Heaven! Thank You!

[@ElitePhotobox]

Kepler date could be used to look at stars that are in an eccentric orbit showing a planet, not circular ones .

[@ElitePhotobox]

If a larger version of Gaia was in a larger orbit say past Mars, then it should be able to resolve more accurate data !.

[@abvmoose87]

I mean this is cool but it would also be cool with some updated photos from the moon and video of Earth.

[@realmarkcaldwell]

What if they each have a planet around them then wouldn't the wobbles cancel out or amplify at times? Could you tell the differences, if so how?

[@ApteraEV2024]

31:00😅NASA!😂

[@craigmackay4909]

I hope Sirius B and Zeta Reticuli are next 🤔😉🤫

[@archmage_of_the_aether]

If you pun the camera to either star to see the relative wobble, if you see a wobble, how would you know which star had the planet?

[@kkgt6591]

Hi, what are your thoughts on, electric universe theory and the theory of variable speed of light theory. They are said to explain dark matter and dark energy without the need of exotic particles.

[@frasercain]

Unfortunately their predictions have been falsified so they need to be rejected.

[@ElitePhotobox]

A DVD is use full try using a DVD burner on a mirror ! 😀

[@Chumfin]

Alfa Centauris Oort Cloud must be really far away from us by now rite ?

[@GordKapasky]

Did Professor Tuthill skirt the question of does his approach to tracking with binary's have to be done from space?

[@MountainFisher]

Sounded like it to me. Either that or he is assuming we know something we probably don't, but he does.

[@GordKapasky]

@@MountainFisher I believe it's been the years of seeing politicians answer with deflective answers that I tuned in to his response. Perhaps an insight into the world of the Scientist/Bureaucrat skillset that many of these type of professionals develop as their careers progress and they take on the hats of fund raisers, spokesmen, YT Commenter etc. That response did not diminish the feeling of excitement Professor Tuthill communicated about his field.

[@GordKapasky]

@@MountainFisher Read your reply again and could just be that too.

[@MountainFisher]

@@GordKapasky I looked him up and his field. He is an imaging specialist and developed something that I've never heard of as an amateur astronomer.

[@Nefertiti0403]

Did I hear you say “It’s flying on the James Webb right now” ??😮😮😮😮

[@BabyMakR]

Question: Does the fact that black holes don't have magnetic fields, prove that the magnetic force is transmitted by an actual particle, not a virtual particle? Also, neutrinos pass through everything, what about blackholes? Can they pass through blackholes?

[@paulanizan6159]

I think, a planet suitable for life is more likely to be found around alpha or beta Centaurus than the stellar active Proxima.

[@derderrr7220]

would something akin to a geostationary orbit about the sun be a viable orbit for such a thing, it'd give a more accurate reading as to the difference between our sun's pathing and another solar mass. as they all sort of jiggle about. wouldn't a photo negative type dealio be helpful for longevity of measurement as the star is quite bright so identifying the specific band width it kicks out perhaps the shadows the orbiting bodies in that system might be a viable option of viewing oblique angles of the planets and such. it'd take a bit of imagination to get a high degree of clarity. but by segments and monitoring orbitals some high res planets could be viable. a sun and it's orbitals is like a light bulb and a lamp fixture

[@AdamosDad]

Of course, there is life there, haven't you seen Avitar?

[@ElitePhotobox]

There is a limit of what can be seen due to the wave length of light !

[@leecowell8165]

Well the ELT is not online yet. but once it comes on line with that absolutely colossal sized mirror its gonna see things JWST can't even dream about. its only issue is gonna be view time because its earth based.

[@xHomu]

Podcast version of this interview is cut off by the 9 minute mark.

[@frasercain]

Fixed, try again?

[@xHomu]

@@frasercain Yep, it's working now! Thanks!

[@ApteraEV2024]

53:10 SPACEX!! ❤🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉 EVOLVING , NOT THE STATUS QOU, WE GOOD ATTITUDE...😢

[@ElitePhotobox]

The Kev Telescope 😁

[@Corvaire]

Ground base does allow for longterm upgrades, expansion and repairs as technology advances. Hopefully, some day in the near future that will also be achievable in space. ;O)-

[@anthonymorris9061]

We will need a service station in orbit to maintain and upgrade satellites.

[@hydrorecords]

Do we have 3 planets in our habitable zone? Or 2?

[@abomination023]

Venus, Earth, and Mars

[@man_at_the_end_of_time]

If Venus were a bit larger so that it had plate tectonic and had a thinner atmosphere.... If Venus were smaller and had less atmosphere to improve heat loss and maybe a big moon and a day night cycle... If Mars were larger say 1.3 of Earth such that it has a thicker insulating atmosphere, a large moon for a stable axis.....

[@ElitePhotobox]

Babylon 5 😀 Centauri Prime

[@brucehansensc]

Cheeky interview! Okay, lets name the planet, votes please: 1. Peter's Planet 2. Tuthill

[@ApteraEV2024]

Starlink, with integrated with Telescopes! ...mars...soon..❤

[@frasercain]

That would be cool

[@user-vf4eu9qb1m]

Tell as about .. Fluidic Telescope 50 m (FLUTE): Enabling the Next Generation of Large Space Observatories

[@frasercain]

Here you go: kzbin.infoMJd6_-Ra6oY

[@Awimb]

Issue with the Podcast on Apple or is it just me? Only 8mins long..

[@frasercain]

Fixed it.

[@Awimb]

@@frasercain Cheers. Great guest!

[@abvmoose87]

I thought we knew there were planets in the alpha centauri system but if you say so.

[@ElitePhotobox]

The Question is, is there Life There !

[@niolss]

I thought we knew there are planets around Alpha Centauri?

[@frasercain]

No, but we know about planets at Proxima Centauri

[@mortimas4137]

Is that a young Saul Goodman?

[@1000dots]

The podcast version of this cut off after 8ish minutes for me

[@frasercain]

Thanks, fixed it.

[@user-js6pe7bn7p]

We need starship

[@gebali]

No matter how good the starship, the problem of TIME will always exist. Coz, physics and distance. ☹

[@user-js6pe7bn7p]

@@gebali Not to travel but to deploy many space telescopes at once.Sorry you didn't get that.

[@gebali]

@@user-js6pe7bn7p Appreciate the clarification. 🙂

[@808bigisland]

@@gebali We need a better starship. Ideally one with a warpdrive. That’s a few starship generations away. It’s already in the name and the 200t version will carry a 1st gen warpdrive.

[@ApteraEV2024]

Alpha im sorry..❤😅

[@jaydelrosario2287]

FANGAYS

[@darkdavegmail]

I am Dr Neutron! WWF

[@ApteraEV2024]

Unfortunately,...LOTS OF MONEY IS ASKED TO EVOLVE.....😢😢😢

[@kc4golf]

Betazed

[@imnogrejones765]

I think if we go to another star we would be extremely unlikely that we will find a planet anything even close to what we need. The ark spaceship we would use to get there would serve as a huge space station in orbit around the new planet. Possibly for hundreds of years while we are terraforming the planet. However if you look instead for asteroid belts around stars then we could build habitats with perfect artificial gravity, atmosphere, food production, living space. Without worry about the availability of a suitable planet. The asteroid belt in our own system could provide living space for trillions of people. The vast majority of stars will not have a planet we can use. Artificial habitats will be the norm rather then living on a planet out there will be rare. Also very important: There was 2 morons sitting on a bench. The giant orange haired moron fell off. The little white haired moron did not fall......cause he was a little more on.

[@cliddily]

Alpha Cen!? Honestly, Aussies and thier annoying abbreviations! 😤

[@annoyed707]

It's nothing to get upside down about.

[@wildcardbitchesyeehaw8320]

lol it's not an Aussie thing, α Cen is like the official Bayer designation abbreviation.