ALPHA CENTAURI: A POSSIBLE SYSTEM FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE

RHIANNON GARDINER1 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Monash University, Clayton

ABSTRACT
Given the proximity to Earth of the binary Alpha Centauri AB ( Cen AB), the star system is of substantial importance to the astronomical community as a prospect for the survivability of extraterrestrial life. The discovery of the unverified terrestrial planet Alpha Centauri Bb orbiting the smaller companion Cen B at 0.04 AU is unlikely to be host to life, but it does suggest the existence of a tertiary planetary system orbiting the star 90% smaller than the Sun. The high metallicities often associated with extrasolar terrestrial planets are found in Cen AB, which is indicative of a possible tertiary system. If the possible gravitationally bound M dwarf Proxima Centauri was host to a system of planets, it would be an unlikely candidate for the existence of life, due to its substantial solar activity and habitable zone subjected to tidal locking.

1 INTRODUCTION
As the closest star system to Earth at 4.37 light years, Cen is a binary with a combined apparent magnitude of -0.27, making it the third brightest star in the sky behind Sirius and Canopus. The nature of the binary, now designated Cen AB was first discovered in 1689 by an astronomer and Jesuit priest Jean Richaud in an attempt to observe a passing comet. In 1915 a faint red dwarf star was discovered in relative proximity to Cen AB by the Scottish astronomer Robert Innes, it is known as Proxima Centauri ( Cen C). It is likely gravitationally bound with Cen AB and consequently apart of a triple star system. Unlike its companions, Cen C is unobservable with the naked eye and was not perceived using a 10 Newtonian reflector telescope. On the night of observation at 8.35 pm local time, the two stars Cen AB were easily discernible with Cen A having an apparent magnitude of 0.01 and appearing bluer than its companion Cen B which had an apparent magnitude of +1.33 (Kervella, Thevenin, Foresto, & Mignard, 2006). Cen B appeared redder and slightly smaller in size and consequently was less bright than its companion. Due to its relative proximity to Earth, Cen is of significant importance to the astronomical community and has been the subject of extensive extrasolar detection methods. Due to the close vicinity that the Sun and Cen share, it is predicted that Cen is a prime target for future interstellar travel and is the subsequent cause for the existence of interest in any possible planetary systems. A circumstellar habitable zone is the region around a star within which a planet with a sufficient atmosphere may support liquid water at the surface, as water is considered as integral for a planet to host complex, multicellular life. This has significance for the human colonisation of any interstellar systems such as Cen AB-C and the viability of contacting extra-terrestrial life. In 2012, the discovery of a possible extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb, acknowledged what researchers had hypothesised for years, making the plausibility of Cen as a life sustaining system, a paramount concern to the astronomical community.

2 SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
The spectral class of a star describes the ionisation of its atmosphere, giving an idea of its photospheric temperature and subsequently its overall mass. The appropriate spectral range for what is described as a habitable star, ranges from early F to mid K . These stars are ideal to support life due to several reasons. They live long enough for life to evolve, of the order of a couple of billion years, unlike very hot OB stars who exhaust their hydrogen relatively quickly due to the extremely high nuclear fusion rates present. More luminous main sequence stars can produce strong ionising radiation, whereas the habitable zone of a low mass M type star is too close and the planet would most likely be tidally locked. Doppler spectroscopy (the radial velocity method) is one of the primary techniques used to look for extrasolar planets within the Cen system. The radial velocity method measures the periodic fluctuations in a stars radial velocity due to the gravity of an orbiting planet. As the star -planet system orbits around the common centre of mass, the planet will have a small effect on the stars velocity about the centre of mass. When the star travels towards an observer on Earth, its emission spectrum shows known spectral lines that are blue shifted. This means that the wavelength of light become shorter and thus has a higher energy. When the star is orbiting about the centre of gravity travels away from the observer, its spectral lines are shown to be red shifted and thus they are moved toward the low energy end of the spectrum. Subsequently a series of observations are made of the stars spectrum and periodic variations are expected to be observed for a star with an orbiting planet.

2.1 ALPHA CENTAURI A

With a mass of MA = 1.1050.007 M (Pourbaix et al., 2002) Cen A has a stellar spectral type of G2V (Bazot et al., 2007). It is about 10% more massive than the Sun and is less active than its companion Cen B. It is estimated that it has a longer and stronger solar cycle than the Sun, at approximately 12-15 years (Robrade, Schmitt, & Favata). The abundance ratios for Cen A and Cen B implied that both stars were formed together from the same protostellar cloud, rather than one being captured by the other (Hinkel & Kane, 2013). Hinkel and Kane (2013) confirmed that the abundance ratios in Cen B showed a signature of the planet Alpha Centauri Bb, which suggests that Cen A is likely host to a terrestrial planetary system as well.

2.2 ALPHA CENTAURI B

The secondary star in the binary, Cen B has a mass of MB = 0.9340.006 M and a stellar spectral type of KIV (Bazot et al., 2007). Guedes et al. (2008) compared Cen B to a nearby K0 dwarf star HD 69830, which had a similar mass, age and spectral type. HD 69830 was known to host three Neptune sized planets but was found to have a lower metallicity of ([Fe/H]=-0.05) than Cen B ([Fe/H]=0.26) (Guedes et al., 2008). As stars with higher metallicities are more likely to have planetary systems, Cen B is an excellent candidate for the Doppler spectroscopy method. Due to its proximity to Earth, the star is inherently brighter than HD 69830 and thus exposures must be ~60 times shorter and are thus less likely to find results. The ideal stars to support planets suitable for life are likely to be smaller, slower burning K stars. These stars are stable with habitable zones that are immobile much longer than the habitable zone of the Sun. Stellar class K stars are more numerous than G type stars and due to their lower emission of dangerous ultraviolet radiation and cosmic rays, they may provide a more favourable habitat for life to arise.

2.3 PROXIMA CENTAURI

Proxima Centauri is an M5.5V red dwarf with a mass of MC = 0.1230.006M (Segransan, Kervella, Forveille, & Queloz, 2003). At a distance of 4.24 light years it is currently the closest star to our solar system (Endl & Krster, 2008). As M dwarf stars comprise the majority of stars in our solar neighbourhood (Reid et al., 2004), they are excellent targets for high precision Doppler spectroscopy. As the circumstellar habitable zone is located close to the star, the radial velocity method becomes highly effective. Changes in the position and velocity for a low mass star are more noticeable as the centre of mass of the orbit is displaced further from the object. Subsequently low mass planets have been discovered orbiting M dwarf stars. The viability of an M dwarf star to support life has been discussed extensively in literature. Tidal locking is of considerable concern, however detailed climate studies have suggested that an appropriate atmosphere could facilitate in the energy transfer between the permanent day and night sides of the planet (Joshi, Haberle, & Reynolds, 1997). After collecting 7 years of high precision Doppler spectroscopy data, Endl and Krster (2008) failed to observe any significant periodicities for Proxima Centauri due to an orbiting planet. Proxima is prone to substantial coronal mass ejections and thus if a companion did exist within the stars habitable zone, any atmosphere it may have would be eventually destroyed. Due to its low mass, the interior of the star is completely convective and thus has an energetic magnetic field. Although Proxima Centauri does not show signatures of extreme solar activity, the size of its flares are hot enough to produce significant X-ray emissions. With a surface area approximately 2% of the Suns, an X-ray luminosity of the same order of the solar level is noteworthy (Gdel, Audard, Reale, Skinner, & Linsky, 2004). With a strong magnetic field, Earth deflects harmful energetic charged particles and consequently protects its atmosphere from these deadly bursts. Planets within the habitable zone of an M dwarf are likely to be tidally locked or rotate very slowly, although it may be enough to generate a magnetic field provided that the planet core is molten. Much like the stellar K type stars, the very long, stable main sequence lifetimes offered by M dwarfs could be more beneficial for life to develop over great time scales, more so than the Sun.

3 BINARY SYSTEM DYNAMICS

The orbit of these stars could jeopardise the evolution of life, which requires a relatively stable system, as planets would be subjected to variations in the amounts of radiation they receive. Thus wide or close binaries are more ideal, to ensure fairly constant conditions. For Cen AB, binary proximity and eccentricity could cause gravitation perturbations which may be harmful to planetary formation. It is known that Cen A and Cen B are gravitationally bound and thus orbit around a common centre of mass. Given that the masses of two stars are MA = 1.1050.007 M and MB = 0.9340.006 M, their similar values ensure that their centre of mass is approximately equidistant to both stars. It has been concluded that for this binary with a semimajor axis of 23.4 AU and eccentricity of 0.52 (Xie, Zhou, & Ge, 2010), no habitable zone exists around Cen AB (Wiegert & Holman, 1997).

3.1 ALPHA CENTAURI A

Protoplanetary disks around stars of a binary system have been observed in the case of L1551 IRS5. Each of these low mass stars, separated by 45 AU were surrounded by a hot, optically thick circumstellar disk with a semi-major axis of about 10 AU (Rodrguez et al., 1998). This demonstrates that the possibility for planetesimal formation is viable. From numerical models it was found that 3

Cen A could produce a series of Earth class planets on a time-scale of 50Myr, some even in the stars habitable zone of 1.2-1.3 AU (Wiegert & Holman, 1997) with low eccentric orbits. In some models during formation, planetary embryos were gravitationally drawn into Cen A. If the protoplanetary disk was large enough, this could alter the metallicity of the star by affecting the composition of the convective envelope. It was also noted that there was an asymmetry between the amounts of material descending into the two stars of Cen AB and thus a difference in the metallicity of the stars would arise if the a planetary system only formed around one component (Barbieri, Marzari, & Scholl, 2002). Therefore the high metallicity of both Cen A ([Fe/H] =0.22) and B ([Fe/H]=0.26) (Chmielewski, Friel, Strobel, & Bentolila, 1992) suggests that they may have possessed accretion discs with capability of forming planets (Forgan, 2012).

3.2 ALPHA CENTAURI B

After an investigation into the conditions for planetesimal accretion, Cen B is believed to be an ideal candidate for a terrestrial planetary system, while it does not favour the formation of gaseous giant planets, it may be host to an Earth-like planet within its habitable zone of 0.5-0.9 AU (Xie et al., 2010). Recent studies showed that planets orbiting Cen B would be subjected to temperature fluctuations of a few Kelvin due to the presence of Cen A. Near the habitable zone boundaries, the fraction of habitable surface on such a planet may be altered by 3%. Life existing on these planets may develop two circadian rhythms corresponding with the length of day around Cen B and the period of Cen A which is approximately 70 years. Although the temperature fluctuations are small for planetary companions of Cen B, the consequences of intermittent changes in temperature on the climate are relatively unknown (Forgan, 2012).

3.3 PROXIMA CENTAURI

Proxima Centauri is located at a much larger distance of 15,000700 AU from Cen AB and considerable research has been conducted into its possible gravitational binding to the star system (Wertheimer & Laughlin, 2006). With 44% of simulations demonstrating a bound system, Wertheimer and Laughlin (2006) showed that Proxima Centauri most likely belongs to the triple star system. This suggests that the three stars formed together and have similar ages and metallicities. The trial simulations using a radial velocity within 1-3 of the current estimated speed demonstrated that Proxima was likely located as the apastron of its eccentric orbit. Thus if Proxima is not bound it will follow on a hyperbolic trajectory past Cen AB. The extrapolation of its orbit is reliant on its measure of radial velocity, subsequently with more precise measurements; its affiliation with Cen AB will most likely be known in the near future. Due to its remoteness Proxima Centauri can be regarded as a single system and consequently any current planetary system remains unaffected by Cen AB, although the presence of Proxima may have influenced any early protoplanetary disks associated with Cen A or B.

4 ALPHA CENTAURI Bb
Nineteenth century astronomers speculated the existence of orbiting bodies about Cen as the closest possible abode for life beyond the Solar System. It took over two hundred years, with searches of increasing precision to discover Alpha Centauri Bb. Although not yet confirmed, if verified it will become the closest known extrasolar planet to Earth. With a semimajor axis of 0.04 AU, the terrestrial planet Alpha Centauri Bb does not lie within the stars habitable zone and is highly unlikely to support 4

life. With an orbit faster than the tidally locked planet Mercury, at a period of 3.236 days it is highly likely to be tidally locked as well. It has a mass of at least 1.130.09M but an upper mass limit is currently unknown due to the ambiguity of its orbital inclination. It is the lightest known extrasolar planet orbiting a solar-type star. The planet was discovered using Doppler spectroscopy and subsequently Figure 1 demonstrates a periodic approximate change of 0.510.04 m/s in the host stars velocity.

Figure 1. A phase-folded radial velocity curve with a period of 3.236 days, the radial velocity induced by the presence of the planet is observed to oscillate from 0.51 to -0.51 m/s. The red curve represents a global fit solution. Image taken from Dumusque et al. (2012). Studies have shown that small mass planets are preferentially formed in multiple planetary systems (Lissauer et al., 2011) and thus it is likely that if Alpha Centauri Bb is confirmed, other planetary companions may exist. In order to verify its existence, empirical confirmation in the form of a detected planetary transit of Cen B is required. Due to any possibly orbital inclination, small planet size and binary nature of the star system, the probability of detection from Earth is small.

5 CONCLUSION
Research into the possibility for the existence of terrestrial planetary systems around Cen AB-C is a motivated field with significant repercussions to both the astronomical community and the world. The Cen AB system provides two stable habitable zones, with an extensive main-sequence period for life to evolve. Similar to the Sun, Cen A and B have high metallicities and subsequently the possibility of a tertiary planetary system around one or both stars is likely. Due to significant solar activity of the potential gravitationally bound star Proxima Centauri and the probable tidal locking of any planet within its habitable zone, the chances for life to exist on a planet orbiting Proxima is less likely to occur. With the discovery of the possible extrasolar planet Alpha Centauri Bb at a distance of 0.04AU, there is hope that other terrestrial planets will be found within the habitable zone of Cen B, although due to its proximity to its host star, Alpha Centauri Bb is likely to be tidally locked and thus an unlikely candidate for extra-terrestrial life. Whether it to be make contact with extra-terrestrials or travel to a sustainable planet, this renewed interest in the star system has conjured hope for future technologies which may give the human race the resources to reach Cen within a human lifetime.

REFERENCES
Barbieri, M., Marzari, F., & Scholl, H. (2002). Formation of terrestrial planets in close binary systems: The case of Centauri A. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 396, 224. Bazot, M., Bouchy, F., Kjeldsen, H., Charpinet, S., Laymand, M., & Vauclair2, S. (2007). Asteroseismology of Centauri A: Evidence of rotational splitting. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 470, 295. Chmielewski, Y., Friel, E., Strobel, G. C. d., & Bentolila, C. (1992). The 1992 detailed analyses of Centauri A and Centauri B. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 263, 219. Endl, M., & Krster, M. (2008). Toward detection of terrestrial planets in the habitable zone of our closest neighbor: proxima Centauri. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 448, 1149-1150,1152-1153. Forgan, D. (2012). Oscillations in the Habitable Zone around Centauri B. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 422, 1241-1249. Gdel, M., Audard, M., Reale, F., Skinner, S. L., & Linsky, J. L. (2004). Flares from small to large: X-ray spectroscopy of Proxima Centauri with XMM-Newton. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 416, 730. Guedes, J. M., Rivera, E. J., Davis, E., Laughlin, G., Quintana, E. V., & Fischer, D. A. (2008). Formation and Detectability of Terrestrial Planets around Centauri B. The Astrophysical Journal, 679, 1583-1585. Hinkel, N. R., & Kane, S. R. (2013). Implications of the Spectroscopic Abundances in Alpha Centauri A& B. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 432(1), 39. Joshi, M. M., Haberle, R. M., & Reynolds, R. T. (1997). Simulations of the Atmospheres of Synchronously Rotating Terrestrial Planets Orbiting M Dwarfs: Conditions for Atmospheric Collapse and the Implications for Habitability. Icarus, 129, 450. Kervella, P., Thevenin, F., Foresto, V. C. e. d., & Mignard, F. (2006). Deep imaging survey of the environment of Centauri. I. Adaptive optics imaging of Cen B with VLT-NACO. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 459, 670. Lissauer, J. J., Ragozzine, D., Fabrycky, D. C., Steffen, J. H., Ford, E. B., Jenkins, J. M., . . . Sasselov, D. (2011). Architecture and dynamics of Kepler's candidate multiple transiting planet systems. The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series, 197(8). Pourbaix, D., Nidever, D., McCarthy, C., Butler, R. P., Tinney, C. G., Marcy, G. W., . . . Kent, D. (2002). Constraining the difference in convective blueshift between the components of Centauri with precise radial velocities. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 386, 280-285. Reid, N., Kelle L. Cruz, Peter Allen, Mungall, F., Kilkenny, D., Liebert, J., . . . Burgasser, A. J. (2004). Meeting the cool neighbors. VIII. A preliminary 20 parsec census from the NLTT catalogue. The Astronomical Journal, 128, 463. Robrade, J., Schmitt, J. H. M. M., & Favata, F. Coronal activity cycles in nearby G and K stars: XMM-Newton monitoring of 61 Cygni and Centauri. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 543(A84), 10. Rodrguez, L. F., DAlessio, P., Wilner, D. J., Ho, P. T. P., Torrelles, J. M., Curiel, S., . . . Raga, A. C. (1998). Compact protoplanetary disks around the stars of a young binary system. Nature, 395, 355-357. Segransan, D., Kervella, P., Forveille, T., & Queloz, D. (2003). First radius measurements of very low mass stars with the VLTI. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 397(3), L5-L6. Wertheimer, J. G., & Laughlin, G. (2006). Are proxima and Centauri gravitationally bound? The Astronomical Journal, 132, 1995-1997. Wiegert, P. A., & Holman, M. (1997). The stability of planets in the Alpha Centauri system. The Astronomical Journal 113, 1445-1450. Xie, J.-W., Zhou, J.-L., & Ge, J. (2010). Planetesimal accretion in binary systems: Could planets form around Centauri B. The Astrophysical Journal, 708, 1566-1578.

APPENDIX
Observation Log taken on the 2/09/13 by Rhiannon Gardiner Time Location in sky (Right Ascension)
12h 29m 51.85517s

Object

Telescope

Notes

7.36

Algorab

8 inch Newtonian Reflector 300mm Newtonian Magnification 75x F5 Focal Ratio Celstron 11 inch SCT F10 Focal Ratio 200mm Aperture F8 Focal Ratio 20inch Dobsonian 2500 mm Focal Length F5 Focal Ratio 18 inch Dobsonian

Star in constellation Corvus 86.9ly away Double star, pin-points Open Cluster red/orange star among blue stars 7000ly away 2x106 years old Open Cluster 10x106 years old 3 pinpoint stars, one above Globular Cluster (hazy, lots of stars) 15,800ly away Oldest globular cluster Globular cluster 16,700ly away 1-2x106 stars 4 Galaxies All spiral, very faint Binary star system, easily resolvable, bright 4.3ly away 6x1010 years old Planetary Nebula Faint outer ring and white dwarf discernible Open cluster, emission nebula, reflection nebula, dark nebula. H II region, Bright, rings were observed, no Cassini Division, Saturn too low, Faint bands Spiral Galaxy. Faint as only just coming over horizon 11.4Mly away

7.43

12h 53m 42s

The Jewel Box

7.53

10 35 24

NGC3293 Open Cluster

s

8.04

13 26 47.28

NGC5139 Globular Cluster 47 Tucanae

8.15

00h 24m 05.67s

8.27

23h 18m 23.5s

Grus Quartet

8.35

14 39 36.4951

Alpha Centauri

10 inch Newtonian Reflector F5 Focal Ratio 18 inch Newtonian Truss Tube 25 inch Aperture F5 Focal Length 31 mm Nagler =102x 4 inch Refracting Telescope 1920 18 inch Newtonian Truss Tube

8.48

18 53 35.079

Ring Nebula

9.00

18 02 23

Trifid Nebula

9.13

Saturn

9.20

00 47 33

NGC253 Silver Coin Galaxy