The star closest to the sun hosts a planet that may be very much like Earth, a new study reports.
Astronomers have discovered a roughly Earth-size alien world around Proxima Centauri, which lies just 4.2 light-years from our own solar system. What’s even more exciting, study team members said, is that the planet, known as Proxima b, circles in the star’s “habitable zone” — the range of distances at which liquid water could be stable on a world’s surface.
“We hope these findings inspire future generations to keep looking beyond the stars,” lead author Guillem Anglada-Escude, a physics and astronomy lecturer at Queen Mary University of London, said in a statement.“The search for life on Proxima b comes next.”
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/057/714/original/proxima-centauri-b-landscape.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=inside|*:1400
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/057/719/original/proxima-centauri-bright-ANNOTATED.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=inside|*:1400
a potentially Earth-like world orbiting Proxima Centauri - the closest star to our own sun. This historic find marks the closest alien planet - and potentially habitable to boot - ever found.
http://www.space.com/images/i/000/057/718/original/proxima-centauri-b-planet.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=inside|*:1400
Courtesy: http://www.space.com/33834-discovery-of-planet-proxima-b.html