Author: David Mary

More here

From ESO’s press release, interest in our neighbouring Alpha Centauri star system has been particularly high since the recent discovery of an Earth-mass planet, known as Proxima b, orbiting the system’s third star — and the closest star to the Sun — Proxima Centauri. While the system’s larger stellar pair, Alpha Centauri A and B, appear to have a proper motion on the sky that is very similar to that of the smaller, fainter Proxima Centauri, it has not been possible to demonstrate that the three stars do actually form a single, gravitationally bound, triple system.

Now three astronomers, Pierre Kervella, Frédéric Thévenin and Christophe Lovis, have concluded that the three stars do indeed form a bound system, see their article Proxima’s orbit around Alpha Centauri.

Courses notes

here

See ESA’s announcement.

Many scientists from OCA have contributed to this achievement.

In MAUCA the following METEOR are linked to GAIA:

Galactic Archaeology

Stellar Clusters: Rosetta stone of stellar and galactic evolution

Formation and Interpretation of Stellar Spectra

Stellar Pulsation and Evolution Polar and Space Missions

 

On Tuesday, November 8, the Journée Scientifique de l’Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur will take place in Cannes. The lecture @ TAS by R. Krawczyk, initially planned on November 8, is shifted to Wednesday 9 so that MAUCA students can attend the JSOCA.

Press release and article relating this discovery

here

and can be found here.

This satellite will test the Weak Equivalence Principle with unprecedented precision. See also ESA’s announcement

MICROSCOPE and the universality of free fall are under focus in one METEOR proposed by the scientific PI of MICROSCOPE, G. Métris.