Zeta Retciculi - Photo and Discussion

As a lot of you know I am an astronomer. Right now I am an amateur one studying to be a real life grown up one when I graduate.


The star system of Zeta Reticuli features heavily in UFO lore and Sci Fi (The Alien movies, Prometheus, Space Above & Beyond, The X-Files, even Star Trek).

From the alleged abduction of Barney and Betty Hill through the MJ-12 documents to Bob Lazar's "Sports Model", to Project SERPO, these two stars 39 light years away and only visible to Earth's southern hemisphere have been mentioned quite a lot. Especially by the elder statesman of modern UFOlogy, Stanton T. Friedman.

But what do we really know about these two stars?

Well we know that both stars are in the same class as our Sun. They are very similar to it in many ways.

We also know that they are separated by each other by less than 1 light year (0.06 light years to be exact). Basically light from one star reaches the other 3 weeks later.

If the Sun had a similar Sunlike binary companion at the same distance both stars could comfortably host an Earthike planet or two with no adverse effects because the twin stars would be far from each other.

If a civilization existed on a planet around Zeta 2 Reticuli then Zeta 1 Reticuli would be the brightest object in the night sky.

It would probably feature in such a civilization's own myths and religions due to its brightness dominating the night sky.

From the planets of one star, the other star would be a brilliantly bright star about 30 times as bright as Venus looks in Earth’s sky and would be visible even during the day.

Alien astronomers would have been able to detect and possibly take detailed pictures of planets around the other star with technology not even as advanced as what we are currently using today (again, due to their close proximity to each other).

Imagine us discovering the first extrasolar planet in 1895 instead of 1995 for example!

For all that we know about these stars there is more which we don't know.


No planets have been detected around either star of Zeta Reticuli yet.

We do not know if they have any planets yet. There is no reason to believe that they are devoid of planets though because planets are a product of the same process which forms the stars. There are likely more planets than stars in the universe. Every star you see in the sky probably has at least a couple.

One unusual aspect of the two stars is we don't really know their age. There are two different techniques used to date a star. Usually these match up. In the case of the stars of Zeta Reticuli they don't. So while one technique says they are around 6 to 8 billion years old (as opposed to our Solar System 4.5 billion year old age), other studies show the two stars might actually be younger than our Sun. As young as 2 to 4 billion years old.

Both stars are also considered unusual because they have a lower luminosity than is normal for main sequence stars of their age and surface temperature. That is, they lie below the main sequence curve on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram for newly formed stars. Most stars will evolve above this curve as they age.

(SIDENOTE: A good sci-fi story based at Zeta Reticuli might involve an advanced civilization which uses advanced astro-engineering to keep their old Suns young to prolong their life.)

Planetary systems around both stars of Zeta Ret. have been modeled and as I said, either or both stars could have their own system of planets of various sizes, including one or more planets in the habitable or "goldilocks" zone where liquid water can exist on the surface of a planet.


No planets have been discovered around either Zeta 1 or Zeta 2 Reticuli yet.

An oft-repeated myth about the Zeta Reticuli system in UFO lore is that emissions from the two stars contribute to a dangerous level of background radiation in their vicinity. The two stars are too far apart for this and this idea seems to have been dreamed up by the perpetrators of the Project SERPO hoax ie: Richard Doty.

Another myth is that "the Greys" which supposedly hail from here have evolved their dark black eyes due to being on a planet bathed in the UV light from two stars. Again, this simply has no basis in reality since the two stars are far enough apart, at almost 4000 times the distance of the Earth from our Sun, that the UV flux of the other star would not be high enough for this to happen.

No planets of a Saturn size or larger have been detected orbiting close to either star which is good news if one were looking for small rocky planets like our Earth in those types of orbits. The existence of "Hot Jupiters" or "Hot Saturns" around other stars is suspected to be the result of planet migration during formation. As big planets move in, smaller planets like the Earth get ejected. So it is good news that those have not been detected. (And they have been looking for them since 1996)

If Zeta 1 or Zeta 2 Reticuli have planets the size of the Earth orbiting them, and there are good reasons to believe they might since many models of these stars formation lead to terrestrial sized planets orbiting them then they await future discovery either by something like NASA's TESS mission due to be launched in 2017 or the European Extremely Large Telescope due to begin observations from Chile in the mid 2020s.

Until then, searches for larger Super Earth, Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter sized planets continue at present using various techniques.

In 2010, a team of astronomers announced that far-infrared wavelength observations with ESA’s Herschel space telescope showed a ring of cold dust and ice about 100 AU across around Zeta 2 Reticuli. Almost certainly there are comet nuclei and dwarf planets, analogues of our Pluto, Eris, Makemake and Haumea, in this ring. This debris disc is not symmetrical, a possible indication that the material is being gravitationally effected by an unseen planetary companion.

This debris disc also could have brought water to any rocky inner planets around Zeta Reticuli in much the same way that the Oort Cloud and Kuiper Belts did for the early Earth.

So studying dust around these stars is important to get a gauge on just how habitable any planets we may discover there may be.

The other night the opportunity to take an image of these two stars presented itself during the course of my normal work which usually doesn't not involve taking pretty pictures but taking data like spectra or lightcurves from a star.

So apologies for the B & W image. I may post this again with color filters. This was taken by me last night, remotely using the 1.2 meter UK Science and Engineering Research Council's Schmidt Reflector in Australia.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the two stars of Zeta Reticuli:



Like I said I may post this again in color. In the color image you can just about make out the slight color difference between the two in the color image.

Excellent analysis and imaging of the two stars!

One day we will know whether somehow we were right about the possibilities for advanced intelligent beings living amongst those systems.

Thanks for your informative post.

From what I have read, binary star systems are not believed to give rise to stable orbits for planets, which would tend to make life -- at least as we know it -- infeasible on such satellites.

Also, if the two stars are 0.06 ly apart, the time for light to travel between them is closer to three weeks, rather than a month.

MrInquisitive
From what I have read, binary star systems are not believed to give rise to stable orbits for planets, which would tend to make life -- at least as we know it -- infeasible on such satellites.

Also, if the two stars are 0.06 ly apart, the time for light to travel between them is closer to three weeks, rather than a month.

Thats dated. and it was made of pure scientific pullitoutyourassium in the first place. binary systems can have three areas where stable planets can form and orbit. around either parent star and cicum-binary or around both stars. it all depends on the separation of the stars and thier masses. astronomical observations have since confirmed planets in binary systems are pretty common. and according to updated modelling for example there are actually at least 12 stable orbit solutions in the aplha centauri system at least 4 around each star and up to 4 in circum-binary orbit.

here is an example: www.nasa.gov...

MrInquisitive
From what I have read, binary star systems are not believed to give rise to stable orbits for planets, which would tend to make life -- at least as we know it -- infeasible on such satellites.

What you read is well out of date.

There have been plenty of planets found in stable orbits around binary stars.


Either around one single star in a binary system or around multiple stars in such a system.

The latter are called "Circumbinary Planets" and to use an example from Sci-Fi, the planet Tatooine from Star Wars is a circumbinary planet.


The first such circumbinary or "Tatooine" type planet was a Gas Giant found orbiting two stars by the SETI Institute in 2011:


Recently a group of citizen scientists using nothing more than their two eyes and brain discovered a real-life Tatooine planet which is orbits 2 stars in a 4 star system by looking at Kepler light curve data on the Planet Hunters citizen science site.

They beat the computers and "real scientists" to the punch in the process:

You too can get Join The Hunt in this if you're interested.

And of course a planet was detected around our nearest neighbor, Alpha Centauri, which is a three star binary system.

Also, if the two stars are 0.06 ly apart, the time for light to travel between them is closer to three weeks, rather than a month.

Doh! correct! I've gotta fix that. I had 30 days on the mind for some reason.

reply to post by JadeStar


Great Post JadeStar!

We need more posts like these.

Jadestar, I enjoyed reading this. It was informative, intelligent and well written. You really know your stuff.

I haven't got the intelligence to become anything like an astronomer but I love reading items such as this. Who knows what other little gems await discovery by people like you.

Thanks!

Is there a possibility of these "Circumbinary Planets" exist on Zeta binary system ?, even at further distance ?
If there a possibility to exist, is there a Goldilock position around the system ? And orbit shape + time taken to complete can match the Goldilock ?
If there a suitable condition for life on the Goldilock, how much light will the planet receive ? Bright/Too bright/Dim/etc ?

The Gray was mentioned as having big eyes. From my perspective, big eyes meant the opposite, it was developed on a naturally dimly lit environment, which require creatures to have bigger eyes and due to low light level, sonic/telepathic/other awareness are more important than visual unless you have - big eyes,
Comparable to our bat/owl/other nocturnals.

I'm just curious about the possibility, I dont think they came from there but as you already mentioned above...lots of referring to that stars..

reply to post by JadeStar


A very solid thread indeed.

I can imagine that finding planets around these stars would not be an easy job given the current methods of locating exoplanets. But still the mathematics is solid and there is little that could stop a habitable planet residing in that system.

Follow the dust I guess, the evidence of a 'Zeti belt' could very well lead to the discovery of a terrestrial planet, current technology is the only thing stopping us.

Good luck with your studies.

reply to post by JadeStar


Nice thread & info s&f

NullVoid
Is there a possibility of these "Circumbinary Planets" exist on Zeta binary system ?, even at further distance ?
If there a possibility to exist, is there a Goldilock position around the system ? And orbit shape + time taken to complete can match the Goldilock ?
If there a suitable condition for life on the Goldilock, how much light will the planet receive ? Bright/Too bright/Dim/etc ?

The Gray was mentioned as having big eyes. From my perspective, big eyes meant the opposite, it was developed on a naturally dimly lit environment, which require creatures to have bigger eyes and due to low light level, sonic/telepathic/other awareness are more important than visual unless you have - big eyes,
Comparable to our bat/owl/other nocturnals.

I'm just curious about the possibility, I dont think they came from there but as you already mentioned above...lots of referring to that stars..

That would be possible. or it could be possible they are native to the dimmer of the two stars. or according to the lore (at least some versions of it) both they and their rivals are not native to the stars they currently inhabit. according to that version of the lore they are refugees/escapees from another more advanced more powerful star faring race in the direction of Lyra; maybe even extra-galactic in origin. some of that lore even pegs them as a created servitor race with a deliberately simplified organ system and severe genetic reproductive restrictions hence the undue curiosity about our human genetics and reproductive systems. it's actually getting pretty entertaining as the lore evolves. quite complex and worthy of being made into several movies.

Does the idea that the supposed inhabitants of the Zeta Reticuli star system rejuvenated their aging star, preventing it from getting brighter and warmer, and harming their planet amount to science fiction? Yes, for the time being, since we don't yet know enough to say if this actually happened. Lots of things we now take for granted were once classed as science fiction; things like men on the Moon, atom bombs, and television.
We can use what little we do know to help us entertain this possibility, though.

These two stars appear to be moving in common with a group of other, old stars, strongly suggesting to astronomers an age of about 8 billion years. Since Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 are of the same stellar type as our Sun, they should have a similar course of stellar evolution, on a similar time scale.

We read that in about 500 to 900 million years our Sun will have gradually warmed and brightened enough to make Earth unlivable. At that time the Sun will be approximately 5 to 5 &1/2 billion years old. We see, then, that the planets of an 8 billion year old star of our type could be living on borrowed time.
We also know that the Zeta Reticuli stars show some youthful traits recognized by astronomers, too. These include low brightness, given their apparent temperature, and the presence of certain spectrographic features; dark absorption lines associated with the element calcium.
So why should a star look young in itself, yet move in common with much older stars?
A clue to this mystery just might lie in the fact that the Zeta Reticuli stars have less of the element beryllium than expected. Beryllium is a crucial part of the stellar fusion process that is associated with the expansion of a star. If something could be done to limit the presence of beryllium in a star, it might be possible to stop it from expanding, and rendering its planets uninhabitable.
www.forbes.com...
www.universetoday.com...

reply to post by JadeStar


Great thread ! Very informative and well presented !!

We live in amazing times. The decades to come will most probably carry the answer to the question "Are we alone?" as technological advances will permit us to find life out there, if there is.

S&F. Oh, and Awesome pic !!!

reply to post by JadeStar

Funny up until yesterday I had no idea of this places existence until I saw the name in a online chat talking about the space program in the 1950s.

reply to post by Abavs


The truth is out there. I want to believe but the government wont let me. Its funny it was just yesterday I was looking at a picture from the mars rover 10 000 by 10 000 pixels and I noticed quite a bit of photo shopping in it with blur and smudge. Obviously someone dont know how to use the patch and clone tool. Hahaha

I now see that the triple alpha process involving helium and beryllium is not applicable to stars like Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli, still on the main sequence. The deficiency of beryllium appears to have nothing to do with any supposed astro-engineering on those stars.

I do still maintain that the very gradual brightening of a main sequence star appears likely to make formerly habitable planets, unlivable, long before their star leaves the main sequence. Some technological means of rejuvenating a star, and preventing its further brightening beyond a certain point would seem to be very desirable, if it could me managed.
The contradictory age indicators in the stars Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli seem to hint at such a rejuvenation. Indeed, given the expected evolutionary track of a G type star, it seems essential in such stars with a reputed age of 8 billion years, if they have inhabited planets that are to remain inhabited.

Very interesting...have not read thru it all yet but wanted to mark my spot so I dont forget

Interesting post, but beware of using unproven items as evidence.

The initial 'discovery' of the ZR group was due to Marjorie Fish doing an analysis of the B&BH abduction 'star map'. This has not been proven as a true and definitive analysis and there are probably other alignments which could be attributed to this map.

But before you even go there, bear in mind that the Hill Abduction was most likely due to an AF pay-op.

See this post right here on ATS:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

It was likely handled out of Montreal, with a connection to someone at Pease AFB in NH.

Again, nice post but built on a house of cards.

Ross 54
I now see that the triple alpha process involving helium and beryllium is not applicable to stars like Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli, still on the main sequence. The deficiency of beryllium appears to have nothing to do with any supposed astro-engineering on those stars.

I do still maintain that the very gradual brightening of a main sequence star appears likely to make formerly habitable planets, unlivable, long before their star leaves the main sequence. Some technological means of rejuvenating a star, and preventing its further brightening beyond a certain point would seem to be very desirable, if it could me managed.
The contradictory age indicators in the stars Zeta 1 and Zeta 2 Reticuli seem to hint at such a rejuvenation. Indeed, given the expected evolutionary track of a G type star, it seems essential in such stars with a reputed age of 8 billion years, if they have inhabited planets that are to remain inhabited.

edit on 5-3-2014 by Ross 54 because: edited for clarity

well on the bright side even some of us primitive earthlings are thinking about how stellar scale engineering could work. like lots and lots and lots (etc) of micro scale wormholes could be used to diffuse stuff (like fresh hydrogen from molecular clouds) not only into stars but into the cores of tectonically and magnetically dead worlds. you could use them to diffuse thorium and uranium in a safe way into the core and mantle to melt the mantle and get a dead world jump started.

Anothe wonderful and informative thread Jadestar. I do so love your big brain and the way you educate this old fool. As I may of mentioned earlier you were the reason I joined ATS and threads such as this reaffiirm that it was worth it. Thank you again and keep up the great work as it clearly is your calling and passion.

Back on subject:
Although I realise you avoid supposition for obvious reasons but are not afraid to tweak the UFO crowds interest(nice touch btw) and although you mentioned it could be possible, I was wondering if you would consider this binary system a likely candidate for ETL. Not the "et phone home" kind but lifeforms of any kind due to the fact it is binary and from my laymans understanding would seem to be an extremely hostile place assuming there were any planets in the, what I would assume, very narrow gz.


P.S. Excellent image of zeta reticuli.

ETA: You posted a thread inOctober or November outlaying for lack of a better term a possible starmap of an interstellar highway. I never did get to finish that thread and would appreciate a pointer to it if possible. Thanks in advance