The TOLIMAN mission targets the Alpha Centauri triple star system, which is believed to host several potentially habitable planets.
According to Sci-News, TOLIMAN is an interferometric telescope tasked with monitoring the nearby space region. The mission is a collaboration between the University of Sydney (Australia), NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the California Institute of Aerospace Innovation (USA). “Toliman” is also the Arabic name for Alpha Centauri, the triple star system that this mission is focused on.
The Alpha Centauri triple star system, with Alpha Centauri A and B close together, while Alpha Centauri C (Proxima Centauri) is dimmer and located further away – (Image: NASA)
Alpha Centauri is also known by other names such as Rigil Kentaurus, Rigil Kent, and Gliese 599, and it is located in the Centaurus constellation.
This triple star system consists of Alpha Centauri A, Alpha Centauri B, and Alpha Centauri C. Among them, Alpha Centauri A and B form a binary pair of bright K1-type stars that orbit around a common center approximately every 80 years, with a distance between them equivalent to 11 times that of Earth and the Sun.
Alpha Centauri C, a dimmer red dwarf also known as Proxima Centauri, is located further away from the other two stars but is the most famous. A few years ago, an Earth-like planet was discovered orbiting this star, making it a potential world for life, and it has been studied by astronomers from dozens of countries, with many works published in various scientific journals. This star and its planet are only 4.2 light-years away from us.
However, scientists believe that around Alpha Centauri C, as well as Alpha Centauri A and B, there is potential for additional habitable planets.
“These nearby planets are the best prospects for us to search for and analyze atmospheres, surface chemistry, and possibly even biosignatures, which are expected signals of life. They will be the first places that humanity will approach with high-speed robotic probes in the future,” said Professor Peter Tuthill from the Sydney Institute of Astronomy at the University of Sydney, one of the key members of the TOLIMAN mission.
TOLIMAN will be a space telescope specifically designed to make extremely precise measurements of the positions of stars in the sky to detect the slightest fluctuations in light – which could indicate the presence of a planet.
