ESO Discovers Earth-Size Planet in Habitable Zone of Nearest Star

ESO Discovers Earth-Size Planet in Habitable Zone of Nearest Star: 

A newly discovered, roughly Earth-sized planet orbiting our nearest neighboring star might be habitable, according to a team of astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope at La Silla, Chile, along with other telescopes around the world.

Facts from the article 

• The exoplanet is at a distance from its star that allows temperatures mild enough for liquid water to pool on its surface.

• The new planet circles Proxima Centauri, the smallest member of a triple star system known to science fiction fans everywhere as Alpha Centauri. Just over 4 light-years away, Proxima is the closest star to Earth, besides our own sun. 

• "The closest star to us has a possible rocky planet in the habitable zone.

• The science team that made the discovery, led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé of Queen Mary University of London, will publish its findings Aug. 25 in the journal Nature. 

• The team traced subtle wobbles in the star revealing, the presence of a star-tugging planet.

They determined that

• the new planet is dubbed Proxima b.  
• It is at least 1.3 times the mass of Earth. 

• It orbits its star far more closely than Mercury orbits our sun.
•  Proxima b takes 11 days to complete a single orbit. [a "year" on Proxima b.]

Long list of unknowns

• the new planet lies within its star's "habitable zone" -- a distance at which temperatures are right for liquid water -- scientists do not yet know if the planet has an atmosphere.

• It also orbits a red-dwarf star, far smaller and cooler than our sun. 

• The planet likely presents only one face to its star, as the moon does to Earth, instead of rotating through our familiar days and nights. 

•  Proxima b could be subject to potentially life-extinguishing stellar flares.

To read the ESO press release, visit:

www.eso.org/public/news/eso1629/?lang

To learn more about NASA's Exoplanet Program, visit:

http://exoplanets.nasa.gov

Elizabeth Landau
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
818-354-6425
elizabeth.landau@jpl.nasa.gov
Written by Pat Brennan
NASA Exoplanet Program
2016-218

Proxima is the closest star to Earth, besides our own sun.