(Brian Tung) wrote in message ...

Yes. We've said that a number of times, now.

Thanks Brian, that's awfully clear now.

What about extrasolar planet detection efforts around Alpha Centauri,
to your knowledge?

To my knowledge, such efforts have been unsuccessful in detecting planets
around alpha Centauri A, B, or C. That doesn't mean that there aren't
any planets around any of those stars--only that if there are, they are
too small (or, just conceivably, in an orbital plane that is too close to
perpendicular to our line of sight) to have been detected yet.


I've heard it once mentioned that a planet orbiting one of the stars
of a binary system can receive large doses of radiation from two stars
as opposed to one and that 'flaring' between the two suns of the
system could be common place.

Take our Sun for instance and the recent high levels of solar activity
we've seen, sending massive amounts of charged particles toward the
Earth. Now imagine if Alpha Centauri B was orbiting somewehere around
where Uranus or Neptune is in our solar system, how much of an effect
would the additional radiation from this secondary sun add to our
every day lives?

If solar type flaring occurs on Alpha Centauri A and B, I wonder if
the gravitational interactivity between the two stars would increase
this flaring disproportionately. In other words, if the two stars were
isolated and not confined in a binary setup then (radiation from A +
radiation from B) would be less than that where the two stars are
gravitationally bound as in the case of Alpha Centauri? Is it
possible that the invisible gravitational flux lines (if that's the
right way to put it?) could induce too much flaring and cause harm to
any life evolving around a planet orbiting either star?

If such flaring caused *minute* variability to the overall
brightnesses of each star, surely that would vary across the 80 year
orbital period of the system and we should perhaps see an increase
towards the periastron passage time when the stars are closest
together? I wonder if such tiny variations could in fact be tracked by
photometric equipment carried on space telescopes in orbit around
Earth like the Canadian MOST mission. etc...

Thanks,
Abdul