Earth-like planets around Alpha Centauri

A lot of it is really based on hope (as well as some scientific analysis), but we'll really need to wait until missions like the 'Terrestrial Planet Finder' are launched by NASA in the next decade or so...

AA
 
Special telescopes whould be out by 2014 which would allow the detection of earth size planets using many (optical?) telescopes combined, that cut out the glare caused by the planets star
 
We also have the Darwin mission to follow along with Terrestrial Planet Finder. Once the
Earth-like planets have been located around nearby stars, that mission
will help answer the next big question in the chain: do they contain
the signatures of life?


More here:-


http://www.darwin.rl.ac.uk/overview.htm


The next couple of decades are going to be very very exciting!


Roll on 2015.... :)
AA
 
Despite Alpha Centauri being a triple sytem, its main component is spectrally much alike our sun. My guess is that terrestrial planets are possible there. The slower the star's revolution over its axis, the likelier is the chance it's "overburdened" with the planetary system.
Concering the diameters of lenses and reflectors for telescope. True, our technologies still unable to create a lense or even a reflector with almost zero distortion larger than 10 meters. But what if make lenses in analogy with soap bubbles? Let them be not lasting long but easily renewable. Can a lense effect be also created by a kind of EM field? So all we would need then is just a lense frame...
Has anyone ever researched such possibilities?
 
As of early 2006, I believe the Terrestrial Planet Finder mission was deferred/cancelled.

But not to lose hope... there are other ideas taking shape which equally promise to look for 'New Earth', perhaps at a fraction of the TPF's cost. Here's one concept that I think has the highest merits:

http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=557

cheers,
AA
 
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