#kapteyn b

Jacobus Kapteyn – Scientist of the Day

Jacobus Kapteyn, a Dutch astronomer, was born Jan. 19, 1851.

Created image A man named India felt like a voodoo doll the morning of his electric birthday. The pinpricks stabbed at him like tiny little swords. He wasn’t feeling right in the head. Something about turmoil and fissures cracking open like in the Earth itself. The steam and liquid magma were leaking out inch by inch and India was just ready to explode. India went over to his neighbor’s house.…

Created image A man named India felt like a voodoo doll the morning of his electric birthday. The pinpricks stabbed at him like tiny little swords. He wasn’t feeling right in the head. Something about turmoil and fissures cracking open like in the Earth itself. The steam and liquid magma were leaking out inch by inch and India was just ready to explode. India went over to his neighbor’s house.…

Closest exoplanet to us is from another Galaxy. No really!

It's amazing to think about, but it's true. Kapteyn's star, along with its planets, formed over 11 billion years ago in a dwarf galaxy that merged with the Milky Way only 400 Million years ago.

Oh and I hear you like pretty space pictures. Well guess what. We've got two for you this week! 

Exoplanets discovered 13 light-years from the Sun, but over 11 billion years old!

This is Kapteyn's Star, named after the man that discovered it in 1898: Jacobus Kapteyn.

Two planets have been discovered around this ancient red dwarf star, which wasn't even originally part of our Milky Way galaxy!

Around 400 million years ago, a dwarf galaxy merged with our Milky Way, slinging stars and dust throughout, leaving Kapteyn's Star to reside in our galactic halo.

With the press release, Science Fiction author Alastair Reynolds wrote a profoundly beautiful piece from the perspective of an advanced spacecraft with artificial intelligence writing home about this phenomenal place. 

Excerpt from "Sad Kapteyn":

I know, I've taken liberties. I should have transmitted my wake-up signal before doing any investigations. But I couldn't resist myself. You made me to be curious.

I found signs of civilisation.

The first planet - Kapteyn b - still lies within the habitable zone of the star, orbiting once every forty eight days. 

There's nothing living there now, not even an atmosphere, but once there was a technological culture.

Yes, the first I've found. The reason I was made in the first place.

How's that for a discovery?

Found! Oldest Known Alien Planet That Might Support Life

Astronomers have discovered what appears to be the oldest known alien world that could be capable of supporting life, and it's just a stone's throw away from Earth.

The newfound exoplanet candidate Kapteyn b, which lies a mere 13 light-years away, is about 11.5 billion years old, scientists say. That makes it 2.5 times older than Earth, and just 2 billion years or so younger than the universe itself, which burst into existence with the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.