A potentially Habitable planet closest to Earth! ┃Proxima b

Описание: Using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, astronomers have discovered a new, roughly Earth-sized planet orbiting our nearest neighboring star.

There is enough distance between the exoplanet and its star that the surface temperatures of the exoplanet's surface are mild enough to allow liquid water to pool at the surface of the planet.

"NASA congratulates ESO on the discovery of this intriguing planet that has captured the hopes and the imagination of the world," says Paul Hertz, Astrophysics Division Director at NASA Headquarters. "We look forward to learning more about the planet, whether it holds ingredients that could make it suitable for life."

As the name suggests, the newly discovered planet circles Proxima Centauri. This is the smallest member of the triple star system known to science fiction fans around the world as Alpha Centauri, the largest of the three. Apart from our own sun, Proxima is the closest star to Earth, as it is just over 4 light-years away from us.

Olivier Guyon, a planet-hunting affiliate at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California,

"The closest star to us has a possible rocky planet in the habitable zone. That's a huge deal. It also boosts the already existing, mounting body of evidence that such planets are near, and that several of them are probably sitting quite close to us. This is extremely exciting."

It was determined that the mass of the newly discovered planet, Proxima B, is at least 1.3 times that of Earth's. This planet travels closer to its star than Mercury does to our sun, and it completes a single orbit in only 11 days, so it is called a "year" on Proxima B because it orbits its star so closely.

According to Kepler data, we can expect to find at least one potentially habitable, Earth-sized planet orbiting an M-type star, like Proxima, within 10 light-years of our solar system.

Bill Borucki, an exoplanet pioneer, said the new discovery might inspire more interstellar research, especially if ProximB b proves to have an atmosphere.

In the coming generations of space telescopes and ground-based telescopes, such as the large ground telescopes now under construction, there is a chance to learn more about the planet and maybe even get some inspiration for how to visit it.

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