A Brief History
On August 24, 2016, the European Southern Observatory discovered the closest planet to Earth that is not in our solar system, calling this newfound planet Proxima Centauri b.
Digging Deeper
Located in the tri-star system known as Alpha Centauri, our new planet orbits the red dwarf star, Proxima Centauri. Not only is it the closest known exoplanet, it is also believed to exist in the “habitable zone,” meaning it is just the right distance from its star to support life. Also intriguing, its size is nearly identical to that of Earth.
Before you start making a reservation on the next flight to our new planet, its distance from Earth is 4.2 light years away. There is no way known that we can travel at light speed, and if we could it would take over four years to get there. Also problematic is the electromagnetic nature of Proxima Centauri, which might strip any potential atmosphere from its planets.
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Will humans ever leave our solar system?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Ellman, Roger. How To Travel To and Explore Mars or Proxima Centauri B. Independently published, 2019.
Tinsley, Lyra. Proxima Centauri b : Voyages Beyond the Known Universe. Kindle, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a diagram by Stephan Tournay of the orbits of Proxima Centauri b and Proxima Centauri c around Proxima Centauri, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
