Earth-like planet around the corner

Astronomers working on a team using ESO telescopes as well as other observatories have received clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to the solar system, Proxima Centauri, "only" a little over four light-years from Earth.

Exoplanet, now designated as Proxima Centauri b, orbits the cool red dwarf in 11,2 days and has been observed to have a surface temperature suitable for the presence of liquid water. Scientists consider it a necessary condition for the emergence and maintenance of life.

This interesting new world, which astronomers write about in the August issue of the journal Nature, is a planet slightly more massive than Earth and the closest exoplanet known to us. The mass of its home star is only 12% of the mass of the Sun, 0,1% of its brightness, and we know that it flares. It may be gravitationally bound to the stars Alpha Centauri A and B, which are 15 meters away. astronomical units ((astronomical unit – approx. 150 million km).

In the first months of 2016, Proxima Centauri was observed using the HARPS spectrograph, working in conjunction with the ESO 3,6-meter telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile. The star was simultaneously studied by other telescopes around the world. The entire observational campaign was part of a project called the Pale Red Dot. A team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Eskud of Queen Mary University in London recorded slight fluctuations in the star's spectral emission lines, caused by what is believed to be the gravitational pull of a rotating planet.