Planet!

[auroracloud]

I just thought I'd let you know, a planet has been discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Solar System, within the habitable zone. Which means liquid water and therefore life as we know it could exist on its surface, though there still are other question marks like how the radiation from the star would affect things. But in any case, this is thrilling. Being the closest star outside our solar system, we can observe it much better than planets around more distant stars.

http://www.eso.org/public/usa/news/eso1629/

Comments

[tinny]

That is indeed very cool! Stephen Hawking has calculated that a probe could be built that is capable of being accelerated to reach it in only a few years (decades)! Exciting!

[auroracloud.livejournal.com]

Yeah, those probes Hawking was talking about, I was excited about it already before this news came out, but now to think what there might be to investigate...!!! Even if the planet doesn't actually have life, we could learn so much about conditions for Earth-like planets elsewhere in the galaxy.