An artistic interpretation demonstrates the recently found dust belt around Proxima Centauri. The review shows the glow coming from the cool dust. There is also a hint at the existence of a cooler external dust belt. Structures may consist of stone and ice particles that could not merge into planets
The ALMA Observatory managed to fix the dust around Proxima Centauri. In the review there is a noticeable glow from a cool dust cloud, as well as hints on the existence of an outer belt consisting of stones and ice.
Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Sun. It is a faint red dwarf, distant by 4 light years. In 2016, we found the planet Proxima b. But the system does not end there. It turns out that the star has an emission of dust cloud cover. Dust detection is important because it is a sign of the presence of a complex planetary system, and not just a single object. Dust belts are remnants of material that is not united in a planetary object. Particles of stones and ice can be up to 1 mm wide, and are able to stretch for kilometers. The belt itself extends from the star for several hundred million kilometers and weighs 1/100 of the earth's mass. The temperature is -230 ° C.
Scientists also received hints that the external dust belt is 10 times farther away. If so, then we get an interesting picture. Both belts are located from the star on the planet. Perhaps we did encounter a lot of the planetary system, where dramatic destructive events occurred in the past.
In the future, they plan to launch the Starshot project to explore the system directly. These will be microsamples attached to the sails with a laser drive.
