The search for life in space goes on. Astronomers are looking for more planets after recent discoveries. They are turning to a nearby star system that could have them. Alpha Centauri is now searched for possible planets.
Last year astronomers have been encouraged when Proxima Centauri turned out to have planets around it. Proxima b is a planet around it that could possibly have life in it. The planet is in what is known as the Goldilocks zone, or the place where conditions are just right to have a possibility of life.
With that find, astronomers are looking once more at nearby star systems for signs of planets. New equipment and technology in recent years have made searches much easier. For the search the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has joined with Breakthrough Initiatives to find other possible planets. The search would be using the Very Large Telescope in Chile for it.
The agreement between ESO and Breakthrough Initiatives would have the VLT Imager and Spectrometer for mid-Infrared (VISIR) on the Very Large Telescope be modified for the search. This would enhance it in searching for possible planets on Alpha Centauri. The star system is the nearest one to Earth.
The search in part is for Breakthrough Starshot. The program has been made in order to launch a fast nanocraft, which would make its way to Alpha Centauri. The challenge right now is to overcome the brightness of the star in Alpha Centauri, according to ESO's site. This brightness has made it hard to view if there are possible planets around it.
Even with a technique that could view the star system in mid-infrared, the star is still too bright. Viewing it in a much better way would mean making a new technique in order to see it much better. Researchers hope that with the modification done to VISIR, it would allow them to view Alpha Centauri in a better way, as Science Daily reports.
Plans for it include having a new instrument module by Kampf Telescope Optics (KTO) as well as a new coronagraph. The new instrument module will have a wavefront sensor. Work done on the Very Large Telescope would benefit the development of the European Extra Large Telescope (E-ENT) and the METIS instrument which would be used for it.
Astronomy hopes to enter a new age in searching for new planets. Alpha Centauri is now searched for possible planets. A galaxy killer is also being investigated by scientists.
