Don’t pack your bags, yet.
Scientists have found a planet that’s roughly the size of Earth in the trinary star system of Alpha Centauri. Nerds are rejoicing, gamers are firing up their old copies of Alpha Centauri, and plans are being made to colonize.
Just… stop. It’s cool, but c’mon.
First of all, the planet has a year that is three days long. That means the sucker is ridiculously close to its star and is super-heated. You’d probably die before you even landed on the planet.
However, we found a planet practically next door to us. And we sort of lucked out in finding its signal, but it’s renewed interest in the star system, where we once thought there were just three stars — Alpha Centauri A and B, and then Proxima Centauri, their little brother — and nothing else of interest.
SETI’s also gone back to pointing their listening devices toward the AC, hoping for some sign of intelligent life.
Question: Alpha Centauri was a pretty sweet game, wasn’t it?
