Big news coming out today in the world of astronomy.
European astronomers have found an Earth-sized planet in a three day orbit around Alpha Centauri B, a member of the Sun’s closest neighboring stellar system. There are two other stars in the system, the Sun-like star Alpha Centauri A and the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.
The finding will be published this week in the journal Nature.
The planet is too close to its star to support life, it’s too hot. Whereas Earth is one astronomical unit from the Sun — this planet is just 0.04 AU from its star. It has an estimated mass of 1.13 Earth masses.
Few of the 750 confirmed exoplanets found by NASA and other observers, and the more than 2,300 additional candidates, are so-called “Goldilocks” worlds where conditions are just right to support life as we know it.
All the same, the discovery of a world around the star system the closest to the Sun is an exceptionally exciting moment for our species. It means there are probably more planets there.
Yes, with our current technologies it’s not really feasible to mount an interstellar human mission. But technology advances. And now we know there are worlds nearby waiting to be explored.