Researchers using the Very Large Telescope in Chile have confirmed a new planet orbiting the nearby star Proxima Centauri. Just 4.2 light-years away, the star is a small red dwarf, and the planets orbiting it are also small. This new planet is roughly a quarter the size of Earth and orbits about every five days. This planet is in a part of the solar system that is likely too hot to be habitable by life as we know it, but that’s okay — a potentially habitable, Earth-sized world is already there, orbiting every eleven days. There is also another candidate planet with a weird distant orbit of every five years.

According to the lead author of this work, João Faria: The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbor seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration.

While we still don’t have the ability to get to this system in a human lifetime, we can dream of what future generations will be able to do. At least until our Sun destroys the Earth, but by then, hopefully, we’ll have sorted getting humans to Proxima Centauri. Maybe.

More Information

ESO press release

“A candidate short-period sub-Earth orbiting Proxima Centauri,” J. P. Faria et al., 2022 February 10, Astronomy & Astrophysics