Earth Versus Proxima Centauri b Rotation Rates

  • Released Thursday, January 23, 2020
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Earth spins on its axis every 24 hours. Proxima B is tidally locked and therefore always faces it's star, much like how the moon has one side that always faces Earth.

Proxima Centauri b is the closest exoplanet to Earth. It is only four light years away. However, since Proxima Centauri b is much closer to its star than Earth, there is a high probability that it is tidally locked, much like our Moon, where one side always faces the Earth.

Earth rotates on its axis once every 24 hours.

Proxima B is likely to be tidally locked, and therefore does not have a day/night cycle like earth. Instead one side of the planet is always in daylight and the other side is always in darkness.

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This page was originally published on Thursday, January 23, 2020.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:14 AM EST.

Papers used in this visualization

https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2017arXiv170902051D/abstract