[TML] Alpha Centauri and Star System Creation

[Jerry W Barrington]

On 8/15/08 11:02 AM, "Ken & Juliane Murphy" <booksfleamarket at yahoo.com>
wrote:

>    With Proxima Centauri a bright far companion, would it actually *orbiting*
> the binaries like Jupiter orbits Sol, or or isiti just out there sitting on
> its own, in a fixed position?

Well, specifically, A & B average about as far apart as the Sun and Uranus
at 23.7 AU.  But it's pretty eccentric (.519) so it varies from 11.4 to 36.0
AU (comparable to Saturn & Neptune's orbits).  A & B go around each other
(as well as near and far) every 79.9 years, so in a modern society, one
could easily live long enough to see a full orbit.  There would be about a
1% change in heating between when they were close and far.  It wouldn't
really look much like a binary star like in Star Wars' Tattoine scenes.  At
best, B would be less then 1/9 of the linear size of A.  More like a very
bright planet.

Proxima is about 15,000 AU out.  Just another star really.  If it's in a
circular orbit, it will take over 1,250,000 years to go around.  And we
can't even prove it's orbiting at all.  It may just be passing through.