Using facilities operated by the European Southern Observatory and other telescopes, the worldwide team discovered the planet, called Proxima b, which orbits Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System. Like planet earth, Proxima B is within the “Goldilocks Zone”, where it is not too hot nor not too cold.
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“Many exoplanets have been found and many more will be found, but searching for the closest potential Earth-analogue and succeeding has been the experience of a lifetime for all of us”, the study author continued.
But scientists are unsure if red dwarf stars like Proxima Centauri are good hosts for life.
The researchers will publish their scientific paper detailing the astronomical finding on August 25 in the journal Nature.
The planet Proxima b is 1.3 times more massive than Earth and orbiting at a distance of 7.5 million kilometres. As astronomer David Kipping put it, “If you tried to pick the type of planet you’d most want around the type of star you’d most want, it would be this”.
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. So it will be decades before it can be confirmed if there is life on this planet, unless we hear from them first. No Man’s Sky players have likely run across similar planets during their time exploring the game’s universe.
This means that the planet is extremely close to its sun when compared to Earth.
However, other factors like the same hemisphere always facing the star, which scorches one side of the planet while the other remains cool, might still render it unlivable, report notes. That star, though invisible to the naked eye, is only 4.2 light-years from Earth, making it our nearest stellar neighbor.
“The key question of our initiative was whether there were potentially life-bearing planets orbiting these stars”, added Pete Worden, a former executive at the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
“We hope these findings inspire future generations to keep looking beyond the stars”.
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“Proxima b would probably be the first exoplanet visited by a probe made by humans”, co-author Julien Morin, an astrophysicist at France’s University of Montpellier, told AFP. If a small, unmanned spacecraft were launched in the next few years, it could reach Proxima b by 2100; children living in 2016 would be alive to see the craft’s arrival.
