Find your nearest Earth-like exoplanet – and it is suitable for life – BBC News

is found closest to our solar system extrasolar planet, similar to Earth and suitable for existence of organic life forms. The discovery made by a group of astronomers from the Queen Mary University in London under the direction of Guillem Anglada-escudos. The basic details of opening posted on the website of the journal Nature

They found a planet Proxima B, orbiting a red dwarf -. The star Proxima Centauri, reports TASS. “The good news is that it is close, however, the location of the neighborhood -. It is not just a nice thing, it’s a dream come true for astronomers who want to continue to monitor the object”, – said one of the authors of Ansgar Reiners

<. p> “It’s not just the closest of the already discovered earth-like planets, but probably closest to our planet outside the solar system from the already open or those that will be opened. There are no stars, which is located closer (than Proxima Centauri) to the solar system respectively planet (the star) is located closest to the solar system “, – explained Anglada-Escudo

Proxima B is located at a distance of 4.2 light years from the solar system -. although it is 266 thousand times than that between the Earth and the sun. Until now, the closest to us were considered planets orbiting stars TRAPPIST-1 – a red dwarf star in the constellation Aquarius. From the Earth to its 40 light-years.

Weight Proxima B is estimated at a minimum of 1.3 Earth masses, and one orbit around its star exoplanet makes for 11.2 days. The distance between the planet and the star it reaches a total of 5 percent of the distance between Earth and the sun. However, Proxima Centauri is much cooler than the Sun, so that its relative proximity does not exclude the presence on the surface of Proxima B water in liquid form.

Scientists admit the existence of the planet’s atmosphere and appreciate the air temperature on the surface of 30-40 degrees. This, along with favorable on Proxima B there are adverse factors – for example, the researchers believe that the level of UV and radiation, which is subject to this planet, is 100 times stronger than on Earth

Scientists propose in coming. decades to conduct additional studies of a celestial body with the help of high-resolution spectroscopy and direct observations, and in the coming century – by unmanned expeditions. American NASA agency expects new data on this and other exoplanets, astronomers have known to be obtained by the James Webb telescope, which should go into orbit in 2018.