ASTR 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Terrestrial Planet, Earth Mass, Orbital Eccentricity
13 Dec 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Using general concepts from first part to explain content in second part. Bring lab book to lab this week ya. In august astronomers discovered an earth-like planet around the star proxima centauri; Proxima centauri b (the planet) is in orbit with a semi-major axis of 0. 05au and mass of. Orbiting around a very small, dim star, but closer. The star is much smaller, with a lower surface temperature. Much less luminous than our sun, not heating planets as much. In order for the planet to be warm, it needs to be closer to the star. If it is a rocky planet, it could have a co2 atmosphere which would keep it warmer. Is closer to its star than mercury is to our sun. Equilibrium temp of 234k w/o an atmosphere. Entirely possible that there"s liquid water in the surface. Proxima b is in the habitable zone around its star. But we don"t know the actual conditions on the planet.
