Proxima Centauri b

[stevebowers]

For Proxima b (the real one) to be resonance-locked, a'la Mercury, it would need to be influenced gravitationally by a Jovian-sized planet orbiting farther out in the Proxima system. Such a planet would likely have been detected by now, so in its absence, Proxima b is tidally locked to its star.

Proxima b was detected by gravitational effects and the way these affect the star's Doppler effect, and these effects would also show the gas giant eventually. You may be right; I'd quite like to know Andrew LePage's opinion on this. I'll ask him.

Insofar as the planet's magnetic field is concerned, it probably has an internally-generated field perhaps 1% as strong as the one generated by Earth; however, the magnetic field generated by convection within and throughout Proxima Centauri is probably several orders of magnitude stronger and may even envelop the planet as it orbits the star. In such a case, rather than deflecting flares, there may be occasions when flares are directed to the planet by magnetic field lines. Which tends to ionize and remove whatever atmosphere may be present.

All in all, my vote is for an airless (or very nearly so) analogue of Twilight.

Radtech497

You are probably right. A Lagrange Magshield could reduce the effects of the flares, so the planet could be protected.