Astronomers Detected an Earth-like Planet Orbiting Proxima Centauri, Closest Star in Solar System

Astronomers have detected an Earth-like planet that is orbiting around Proxima Centauri, the closest star in the solar system.

A team of astronomers using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO' VLT) have found proof of another planet orbiting Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Solar System.

Planet's candidacy for substitute planet

As per Scienc Daily, the newly discovered planet named Proxima d orbits Proxima Centauri at a distance of about 4 million kilometers, less than a tenth of the distance from Mercury's Sun.

When orbiting between a star and the habitable zone, the area around the star where liquid water may be present on the surface of the planet, it takes only five days to orbit Proxima Centauri once.

According to Nature, astronomer João Faria, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Portugal and lead author of the study with his collaborators discovered Proxima Centauri d by measuring small changes in the star's optical spectrum as the planet's gravity pulls the star in orbit.

Proxima d, which weighs just a quarter of Earth's mass, is the lightest exoplanet measured by the radial velocity method, surpassing the planets recently discovered in the L 98-59 planetary system.

Proxima e's gravitational influence is so small that it causes Proxima Centauri to move back and forth at a speed of about 40 centimeters per second (1.44 kilometers per hour).

The team used a state-of-the-art spectroscope called Echelle SPectrograph for Rocky Exoplanets and Stable Spectroscopic Observations (ESPRESSO) on a super-large telescope, a system of four 8.2-meter telescopes at the European Southern Observatory in Ceropanal, Chile. As per Nature.

Faria says that after gathering all of the new pieces of information and observations, they were able to confirm that the planet has a signal as a new candidate for living.

Read more: Scientists Discovered Unexpected 'Hidden World' in Earth's Inner Core

Will be this planet as a livable planet?

Each of the planets within the Proxima Centauri system provides a remarkable case study for exoplanet scientists: They exist along around one star, however, they're all different from one another.

This oddity, as well as the tantalizing prospect of a minimum of one planet firmly inside a livable zone, suggests that scientists are continuously interested in whether or not a future mission can be prepared to go to the star system and its orbiting planets, as per Inverse.

So far, researchers consider Proxima Centauri d as a "planetary candidate". According to Nature, Astronomers traditionally wait for independent confirmation before officially including a new world in their catalog. But the ESPRESSO team is confident they will find it.

(Photo : AFP PHOTO NASA/ESA/K. SAHU (STScI) AND THE SWEEPS SCIENCE TEAM via Getty Images)

Based on their effect on the star's spectrum, the team calculated that the planet is likely smaller than Earth, but at least 26% of its mass.

Pedro Figueira, ESPRESSO instrument scientist at ESO in Chile said that "It shows that the radial velocity technique has the potential to unveil a population of light planets, like our own, that are expected to be the most abundant in our galaxy and that can potentially host life as we know it." As per Sciencedaily.

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