The planet candidate near Alpha Centauri (part II)

   The planet candidate near Alpha Centauri (part II)

"Alpha Centauri A Planet Candidate"

"This artist’s concept shows what a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A could look like. Observations of the triple star system Alpha Centauri using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope indicate the potential gas giant, about the mass of Saturn, orbiting the star by about two times the distance between the Sun and Earth." (ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

"In this concept, Alpha Centauri A is depicted at the upper left of the planet, while the other Sun-like star in the system, Alpha Centauri B, is at the upper right. Our Sun is shown as a small dot of light between those two stars. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Robert L. Hurt (Caltech/IPAC)"(ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

The planet candidate in the Alpha Centauri system is an interesting thing. The planet could be a Saturn-type gas giant in a very elliptic trajectory. Alpha Centauri is far brighter than Proxima Centauri, which orbits the binary star system 4 light-years from Earth. The JWST saw a structure that could be an exoplanet, but then it vanished. Maybe there was some kind of eruption in that solar system, and that covered the exoplanet behind it. The Alpha Centauri Ab can face a similar fate as Alpha Centauri Bb, which was a proposed exoplanet near Alpha Centauri B, that is the K-type star. 

There is not enough evidence of the existence of that exoplanet. But there is a possibility that there are many secrets in the Alpha Centauri system, which is the closest solar system, a triple-star system near Earth. The most interesting thing in exoplanet hunting is that those exoplanet candidates are found quite near to us. But if there are big exoplanets hiding in that solar system, that thing opens new paths to the exoplanet hunters. 

"This three-panel image captures NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope’s observational search for a planet around the nearest Sun-like star, Alpha Centauri A. The initial image shows the bright glare of Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the middle panel then shows the system with a coronagraphic mask placed over Alpha Centauri A to block its bright glare. However, the way the light bends around the edges of the coronagraph creates ripples of light in the surrounding space. " (ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

"The telescope’s optics (its mirrors and support structures) cause some light to interfere with itself, producing circular and spoke-like patterns. These complex light patterns, along with light from the nearby Alpha Centauri B, make it incredibly difficult to spot faint planets. In the panel at the right, astronomers have subtracted the known patterns (using reference images and algorithms) to clean up the image and reveal faint sources like the candidate planet. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Aniket Sanghi (Caltech), Chas Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), Dimitri Mawet (Caltech), Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)"(ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

The existence of the planets in a triple star system in orbit that goes between those stars means that there could be many exoplanets waiting for their finder. Finding and confirming an exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri primary system will be far, far more difficult than confirming exoplanets near red dwarfs. The last confirmed exoplanet near Proxima Centauri was found in 2022. And the first of that system’s planets was found in the year 2016. There is still, unconfirmed exoplanet candidate near Proxima. And another interesting thing is that astronomers could confirm exoplanets near Barnard’s Star this year. 

"This image shows the Alpha Centauri star system from several different ground- and space-based observatories: the Digitized Sky Survey (DSS), NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, and NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. Alpha Centauri A is the third brightest star in the night sky, and the closest Sun-like star to Earth." (ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

"The ground-based image from DSS shows the triple system as a single source of light, while Hubble resolves the two Sun-like stars in the system, Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B." (ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

The image from Webb’s MIRI (Mid-Infrared Instrument), which uses a coronagraphic mask to block the bright glare from Alpha Centauri A, reveals a potential planet orbiting the star. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Aniket Sanghi (Caltech), Chas Beichman (NExScI, NASA/JPL-Caltech), Dimitri Mawet (Caltech), Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)" (ScitechDaily, NASA’s Webb May Have Found a Planet Next Door. Then It Vanished)

Those very dim and lightweight stars start to wobble if there is a small planet orbiting them. But the problem is that large gas giants can cover the changes that small planets cause to red dwarfs' characteristic movement  under their gravitational effect.  So the exoplanets near G- and K-type stars are far difficult to detect, because their brightness covers them. But also, even the most massive objects cannot cause a wobble in those stars' trajectory across the sky. But the exoplanet in the Alpha Centauri primary system could be an interesting discovery. 

https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/proxima-centauri-a-turbulent-star-with-planetary-consequences

https://scitechdaily.com/nasas-webb-may-have-found-a-planet-next-door-then-it-vanished/

https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2025/news-2025-135

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri_Bb