Researchers Have Discovered a Habitable Planet or a SECOND Earth!

Researchers have found the existence of a 2nd Earth. In addition, the planet is believed to be located in the Proxima Centauri System. It orbits within the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, i.e., the closest star to the Sun.

Even though many exoplanets have been found in the universe, none of them is similar to Proxima B. It actually has ‘promising characteristics’: it is rocky, more massive compared to Earth.

As mentioned above, this plant is located in the region around its star, which may allow liquid water on its surface to exist. That’s why researchers believe that the Proxima Centauri system harbors alien life and liquid water.

Proxima B is considered to be about 1.3 times the size of Earth. It is also considered to have the ideal surface’s temperature for water in a liquid state to exist.

Furthermore, it is located about 25 trillion miles or 4 light years away from our planet. This means that scientists should create super-fast spacecraft to visit the planet with ease.

It is believed that the temperature on the planet’s surface is between – 90̊ C and 30̊ C.

Additionally, Proxima B is actually the closest exoplanet that has ever been discovered. Researchers believe that a mission to this planet to look for any signs of life may be achievable in our lifetime.

Although the distance between Earth and Proxima B seems insurmountable, it is formidably shorter than other planets to host life.

What’s more, Proxima Centauri is actually a red dwarf, which is found in the constellation Centaurus. It is extremely weak to be noticed with the naked eye. Over the past few months, researchers haven’t taken their eyes off of this star.

It was followed on a regular basis with the HARPS spectrograph installed on the 3.6-meter telescope of the ESO in Chile as well as monitored with many other instruments from all over the world a few months ago.

The lead author of the paper, Dr. Guillem Anglada-Escudé, pointed out that a number of exoplanets have been discovered, and many more will be also discovered, but looking for the closest potential Earth-analogue as well as succeeding in it have been a great experience for them.

In fact, there are already 2 papers out there that describe the potential habitability of the planet.

Using the thirty-nine-m ESO E-ELT telescope under construction in Chile, may allow further exploration of the planet and of the potential presence of a liquid water reservoir and a thick atmosphere. In case this turns out to be the case, then it may suggest that the nearest star to the Sun hosts the nearest habitable planet.