3 ms·
I'm not a physicist, but a massive Wikipedia article on Alpha Centauri says nothing about the system not being gravitationally bound, and at least one scholarly
by yongjik 2y ago
I'm not a physicist, but a massive Wikipedia article on Alpha Centauri says nothing about the system not being gravitationally bound, and at least one scholarly article says they are gravitationally bound:
https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2017/02/aa29930-16/aa29930-16.html https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/abs/2017/02/aa29930-16/aa2...
> ... the question as to whether they actually form a single gravitationally bound triple system has been open since the discovery of Proxima one century ago. Owing to HARPS high-precision absolute radial velocity measurements and the recent revision of the parameters of the α Cen pair, we show that Proxima and α Cen are gravitationally bound with a high degree of confidence. The orbital period of Proxima is ≈ 550 000 yr.