Proxima 3

Infobox fictional planet
name=Proxima 3


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universe="Babylon 5"
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creator=J. Michael Straczynski
genre=Sci-fi

Proxima 3 is a fictional outpost/colony in the "Babylon 5" science fiction television series. It is the first extrasolar Earth Alliance colony, founded on June 10, 2164 around the Proxima Centauri star. The word "Centauri" in the colony's name was dropped due to confusion with the Centauri race.

In December 2259 Proxima 3 was the site of a bombing attack by Robert Carlson (played by Robert Kilpatrick). He used a batch of explosives stolen from the ice-mining operation on Beta 7, a Centauri colony. The exact amount of damage done by the bombing is not known. Carlson was later arrested on the Babylon 5 station in the episode "Convictions."

Proxima 3 was one of the outposts which seceded from the Earth Alliance in 2260, following the assassination of President Santiago and the bombing of the colonies on Mars by the new president, Morgan Clark, near the start of the Earth Alliance Civil War. The colony was blockaded by EarthForce in 2261 starving the citizens of food and resources, while ground forces invaded the cities.

A flotilla of civilian transports were massacred attempting to flee the beleaguered world, resulting in thousands of deaths. This directly led to Sheridan's campaign to liberate the colonies and remove Clark from power.

Sheridan's first act was to lead a force of Starfuries and White Stars to Proxima 3 to break the EarthForce blockade of the planet. EAS "Pollux" and EAS "Heracles" engaged Sheridan's forces, while EAS "Furies" stood down and EAS "Juno" withdrew. The commander of the EAS "Vesta" chose to stand down. "Vesta"'s Executive Officer attempted to forcibly seize command and engage Sheridan's forces, but he was overwhelmed and restrained by the bridge crew. The "Pollux" hit and seriously damaged a White Star, which then spun out of control and collided with the Pollux head on, destroying both ships.

Sheridan's forces were victorious, and Proxima 3 became a base for forces opposing President Clark.

No further data about Proxima 3 after Sheridan's battle there is available, although it is presumed to have rejoined the Earth Alliance (possibly as an independent member state) with the Earth Alliance's acceptance into the Interstellar Alliance

Scientific Notes

Proxima 3 was shown from space in the episode "No Retreat, No Surrender," where it appeared to be a completely unremarkable earth-type world with oceans and continents. Aside from this, all we know about it for sure comes from dialog in the show, however Proxima Centauri is a very dim, cold star. If a planet were actually orbiting it, and if that planet were habitable by humans, then accounting for infrared radiation, the distance from Proxima where an Earth-type planet would be "comfortable" with liquid water is around 0.02 to 0.06 AU -- much closer than Mercury's orbital distance of about 0.4 AU from Sol -- with an orbital period of between 2 and 16 days. Hence, the rotation of such a planet would probably be tidally locked so that one side would be in perpetual daylight and the other in darkness. It is worth re-stating that none of this information is stated in the series, but if it actually existed, that's what the planet would have to be like. [http://www.solstation.com/stars/alp-cent3.htm] It is worth noting that the planet's appearance on the show is entirely inconsistent with this line of speculation.