Alpha Centauri System 2D - v1.1.1

View settings :

• To move, keep the mouse pressed (selection click) and move it.

• To zoom in and out, use the scroll wheel.

• To center the (un)zoom on an object, select it and follow the same principle mentioned before.
• Two buttons can be used for fast (un)zooming, the one with a magnifying glass containing a plus symbol allows zooming in and the one with a magnifying glass containing a minus symbol allows zooming out. ( and )

• A cursor named “t” allows varying the value of the instant t.
• A boolean named “define time” opens an interface with which you can define a date that will vary the value of time t according to the input. It is enough to enter the values according to the seconds, minutes, hours, days and year then to click on the button to confirm. It is possible to keep the values in memory with the boolean checked “keep values”.
• To accelerate time, a text field under the name “Acceleration of time (in powers of 10)” allows you to accelerate or slow down the speed of time, it should be noted that the possible values must have a maximum of one decimal place and be contained in the interval from -1 to 10 and that also, this acceleration is done according to powers of 10.
• It is possible to stop and then restart the time with the “start time” Boolean.

• The boolean “show planet” allows displaying or not all the satellites.
• The boolean “real size objects” allows to display the real size of the planets (according to the average radius).

• The unit of measurement of distance in AU (astronomical unit)
• The date defined in the project is an informative data on the evolution of the stars in relation to each other and does not follow the real model. That is to say, a star will have a certain position at such date in the project and that in reality this star did not necessarily have this position at the same date in the real world.
• Project created with the classic version of Geogebra 5.
• In case of problems with the system, click on the icon at the top left of the screen of the screen with two arrows to reload the activity.
• Since this system is very distant and few observations have been made of it, some celestial objects included in the project may be false or non-existent. This project should be considered as a pictorial representation.

• Alpha Centauri A (Rigil kentarus)
• Alpha Centauri B (Toliman)
• Proxima Centauri (Alpha Centauri C)
• Proxima Centauri d
• Proxima Centauri b
• Proxima Centauri c, not yet verified
• Alpha Centauri Ab (Candidate 1), not yet verified

• Alpha Centauri A: (Rigil kentarus)
  • Orbital period: 80.9 years (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Eccentricity: 0.36 (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Semi-major axis: 23.4 ± 0.1 AU (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Longitude of the ascending node: 0° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Inclination of the orbit: 79.2° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Argument of periapsis: 0° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri B)
  • Rotation period: 12.4 days
  • Mass: 1.1 solar masses
  • Luminosity: 1.5 solar luminosities
• Alpha Centauri B: (Toliman)
  • Orbital period: 80.9 years (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Eccentricity: 0.36 (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Semi-major axis: 23.4 ± 0.1 AU (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Longitude of the ascending node: 0° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Inclination of the orbit: 79.2° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Argument of periapsis: 0° ± 0.1° (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A)
  • Rotation period: 12.2 days
  • Mass: 0.9 solar masses
  • Luminosity: 0.52 solar luminosities
• Alpha Centauri (Proxima Centauri C):
  • Orbital period: 550,000 years (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A and B)
  • Eccentricity: 0.51 (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A and B)
  • Semi-major axis: 15000 UA (around the barycentre with Alpha Centauri A and B)
  • Longitude of the ascending node: unknown
  • Inclination of the orbit: unknown
  • Argument of periapsis: unknown
  • Rotation period: 83 days
  • Mass: 0.123 solar masses
  • Luminosity: 0.000015 solar luminosities

• SIMBAD, Strasbourg astronomical Data Center
• The Astronomisches Rechen-Institut Heidelberg, Centre for Astronomy of Heidelberg

Colin Bossu