Planet at Alpha Centauri found

In article ,
writes:
I'd like to know why they have just found a planet at Alpha Centauri,
our nearest star, when they have been searching the skies for years
and have found 600 or so planets (iirc).

It's a very difficult observation; it took 459 separate observations
over 3.5 years on a big telescope with a very impressive modern
instrument. Plus extremely complex data reduction, removing many
effects much larger than the planet signal. The final velocity
signal is only half a meter per second! What surprises me is that
the planet was detected at all, not how long it's taken.

The scientific paper is at
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture11572.html
but you'll need a subscription or to pay to read it. The press
release, which excellent, is at
http://www.eso.org/public/news/eso1241/

The press release has a link to what appears to be the scientific
paper minus Nature's editing and minus the Supplementary Information
at
http://www.eso.org/public/archives/r...1/eso1241a.pdf

Phil Plait's excellent blog, which shows the plot of the key data,
is at
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/ba...-has-a-planet/

Nature's commentary on the discovery, also pay or subscription, is at
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal...ture11636.html
(I wouldn't pay for this, but it's worth reading if you have a
subscription. Among other things, it points out that because the
analysis is so tricky, the discovery needs to be confirmed by other
methods before being 100% accepted.)

--
Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner Phone 617-495-7123
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

On Oct 17, 1:33*pm, (Steve Willner) wrote:

Help keep our newsgroup healthy; please don't feed the trolls.
Steve Willner * * * * * *Phone 617-495-7123 * *
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA

So, here we have guys from Harvard and JPL and they are standing on a
planet with a specific set of values for size and rotational speeds
yet these highly paid individuals can't come to terms with the basic
facts of our own planet and specifically the maximum equatorial speed
of 1037.5 miles per hour or for 15 degrees of rotation -

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/as...s/970401c.html

It is astonishing that they cannot follow the dictates of the 24 hour
AM/PM system and the Lat/Long system which determines that our
planet,do you hear,our planet turns at a rate of 15 degrees per hour
as an assertion derived through very specific references and none of
which involve VLBI and a rotating celestial sphere of Ra/Dec.

Never has the world witnessed such a scam and a very expensive one
that has brought all science into disrepute.