We’ve found a twin “habitable” planet on Earth, and it’s not that far from home

Technology

The observation of the sky vault still holds many surprises.

It’s right under our nose. The exoplanet Proxima b, discovered in 2016, orbits Proxima Centaur, the closest star to Earth outside the sun. Not only is it a stone’s throw (on a cosmic level) from our house, but it is also in the “habitable zone” of its star Proxima Centauri, which means that liquid water could exist on the surface. And so, life.

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And recently, new discoveries have shown that the star is almost two twins with our beloved planet Earth. Sifted by Researchers at the University of Geneva With the UVES spectrograph – considered the most powerful in the world – and the “planet explorer” HARPS, this exoplanet provides fascinating secrets. Starting with its size, which is almost similar to our planet, since Proxima b has 1.17 times its diameter.

A big problem

Another element, which means that it is a tellurian planet with a rocky surface, which as such is considered relatively conducive to the development of life.

The study also shows that this exoplanet reaches its revolution around its sun in just 11 short days. An observation that emphasizes that this planet is actually very close to Proxima centaurs.

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The fact remains that Proxima b has to face a major problem in order to hope to welcome life. Proxima centaurs are not as peaceful a star as our sun and its huge eruptions regularly bombard its planet with X-rays, so it seems unlikely to encounter aliens.