Despite being the nearest planet of the thousands of exoplanets, Proxima b is still quite far from Earth, as it is 4.2 light years away.
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It’s about 1.3 times the size of Earth and whips around its star much faster than we do: its year is just 11.2 of our days.
Data collected indicates that the planet orbiting its star has a mass of at least 1.3 times that of Earth and orbits about 7 million kilometers from Proxima Centauri, about 5% of the distance Earth orbits from the Sun. The planet has temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface and may be the nearest possible planet abode for life beyond our solar system.
“The first hints of a possible planet were spotted back in 2013, but the detection was not convincing”, Guillem Anglada-Escude of Queen Mary University in London, who led the Chile team, said in the ESO statement.
Earlier in August, another distant planet that orbits a star 39 light years away from Earth which could have oxygen in its atmosphere was discovered. “It is not only nice for having it in our neighborhood, but it’s a dream come true for astronomers if we think about follow-up observation”.
Endl suggested that if Proxima b is found to transit across the face of its star, he would like to study it in the near future with the Giant Magellan Telescope, which may be able to tease out the composition of the planet’s atmosphere. It is even closer to its star than what Mercury is from the sun.
We have no visual evidence of Proxima b to go on, but astronomers say they feel fairly confident of a few characteristics of the planet. “The search for life on Proxima b comes next”, he added. Proxima Centauri, however, is a more active star than our sun, bombarding “Proxima b” with lots of radiation.
Aside from the presence of an atmosphere, the planet is also subject to factors such as X-ray and ultraviolet flares which could be more intense than what the earth gets from the sun. Proxima B is roughly 30 percent larger than Earth, and closely orbits a star far cooler and smaller than our own.
“We want to know if there is life outside earth”, Claudio Melo, director of European Southern Observatory said.
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A ROCKY planet that might have aliens on it has been found, close enough that we could travel there.
