Since then we have worked hard to get further observations of the ground with help from ESO and others. It appears to be terrestrial in nature rather than a gas giant, although they are unsure if it has an atmosphere.
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“An absolutely awesome discovery”, says Victoria Meadows of the University of Washington. “This is the nearest other planet outside our solar system that we’re ever going to find”.
It is this gravity-induced wobbling that leads scientists to establish a “fingerprint” of a planet, saying that this was strong evidence that something estimated to have 1.3X the mass of Earth was orbiting this star.
Not too long ago, astronomers weren’t sure how common exoplanets in general were – let alone ones similar to Earth, which were assumed to be unique and probably very rare.
More imaginative methods will have to be developed before even a one-way trip to Proxima b lasting less than a human lifetime is possible.
Proxima b could also be tidally locked to the star, which means the same side faces it throughout its orbit. “So it is not a gas ball or something”.
“It is intriguing to think that the simple ingredients – water, carbon dioxide, and rock – that are needed for the formation of biochemical cycles that we call life, could all be present and interacting on the planet’s surface”.
Of course, it may not have an atmosphere, a prerequisite for life.
Proxima b is only 7.5 million kilometres from the star – 5% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun – and takes just 11.2 days to complete one orbit.
All the same, the planet may still be hospitably wet, Meadows says, depending on how and where it formed billions of years ago and how its star behaved during the planet’s infancy. In the meantime, further work is needed on Proxima b. It is only slightly larger than our planet and likely has a rocky surface. That quiver translates into barely detectable changes in the light streaming from the star. It’s approximately 4.25 lightyears away from Earth, and the exoplanet orbiting around it is dubbed as Proxima B. Analysis could reveal molecules that would be telltale signs of life. Currently, we don’t have the instruments available that could snap such a photograph.
Astrophysicists also argue about whether it is possible for life to exist on planets so close to their suns, though it’s all conjecture as we obviously haven’t discovered life outside of our own home planet just yet.
Scientists hope for a “robotic exploration in the coming centuries”.
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