Starship Asterisk*

Hello everyone,

I'm not so sure that this can be asked here. If not I would really appreciate your help in pointing me some good directions where to ask if it is not asking too much. Thanks.

Well, I am part of a discussion list and some doubts about Capella appeared and as I'm not a Scientists, nor Atronomer I am really in doubt with some "facts" posted there.

I know that the system is composed of two stars in a binary, that they are smaller than our sun, but of similar magnitude. The question that appeared in our group is if the system is known to have some planet. I tried do search for information over the internet but I could not find anything. Do you know if some info on that matter is already discovered? If there is NO possibility that Capella have a planet? Do we have the techniques to affirm that so peremptorely?

The other thing I would like to question is if there is some study on whether could be any kind of life form known to us that could survive under harsh environmental conditions, as the conditions found in Capella System (for example I discovered that their stars are much more brighter than our sun and that their x-ray emmisions are very, very high). Is there any data on that matter that someone here could help me with?

Well, as I said in the beginning, I'm not sure if this is the place for my questions. However, if you can help me, that will be awesome.

Thanks.

Doing a search on the web for Capella netted the following information. Based on that information Given more time and study there is a good possibility that we will be able to discern if it has any large planet bodies in it's system. Planet discovery around other stars can be determined by several factors. Light variances, motion variances, other energy variances, that are recorded over time and compared for patterns.

As to any forms of life? We don't know,,,,,,,,,, yet.

Hope this helps a bit.
Norval


http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/capella.html

Capella, at a distance of 42 light years, is one of the sky's most famous double stars. Its two components are both yellow class "G" stars with roughly the same temperature as the Sun, but are much larger and brighter, one 50 times more luminous than the Sun, the other 80 times brighter, each having about 10 times the solar diameter. Each is therefore
a dying giant that has ceased hydrogen fusion in its core. The two stars, just below the edge of separability in the best telescopes by eye, are only about 60 million miles apart - - about two-thirds the distance between Earth and Sun -- and orbit each other with a period of just 104 days, from which we find masses about 2.5 times that of the Sun. The brighter star, slightly the more massive and the more evolved, has almost certainly begun the fusion of its internal helium into carbon. The dimmer of the pair seems to have a contracting helium core that has not yet fired up. Capella is a source of X-rays, probably from surface magnetic activity similar to that seen on the surface of the Sun, but which star is responsible is uncertain. Capella also has a faint companion that is itself a double made of two dim red class M dwarfs that orbits a good fraction of the light year away from the star that graces northern winter.

mackmelo wrote:...is if there is some study on whether could be any kind of life form known to us that could survive under harsh environmental conditions, as the conditions found in Capella System (for example I discovered that their stars are much more brighter than our sun and that their x-ray emmisions are very, very high). Is there any data on that matter that someone here could help me with?

I can't give you any references, and I've not seen any data on the conditions that might obtain around Capella, but:

There are some fairly hardy terrestrial bacteria. I've seen it suggested (can't rmember where or when) that they could be tough enough to survive interplanetary space (Vacuum, hot/cold, UV - don't know about X-rays, though). I'm sure if you do a search of the NASA (and related) sites you will come up with some articles.

dcmcp wrote:[I can't give you any references....

I can now give you a place to start: Today's APOD


EDIT - Spelling