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RandomFactor writes:

Astronomers have spotted a potential second planet circling our nearest neighbor.

The red dwarf star Proxima Centauri is 'just' 4.2 light years away and is already known to have one roughly Earth sized planet dubbed Proxima b, which orbits within the habitable zone (where liquid water could exist on the surface.)

If confirmed, the new world would be Proxima c, however

"It is only a candidate," Mario Damasso, of the University of Turin in Italy, said during a presentation today (April 12) at the Breakthrough Discuss conference

Damasso['s], fellow presenter Fabio Del Sordo of the University of Crete and their colleagues analyzed observations of Proxima Centauri made by the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher instrument. HARPS, which is installed on a telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile, notices the tiny stellar movements induced by the gravitational tugs of orbiting planets. The instrument's data helped lead to the discovery of Proxima b (and many other alien worlds as well).

The potential planet Proxima c is a minimum of six times the mass of Earth and 1.5 AUs from the dim star. As a result it is almost certainly too cold for life with an equilibrium temperature around -390 degrees Fahrenheit (-234 degrees Celsius).

Sadly Proxima b is likely not very hospitable either as it is almost certainly tidally locked to the star causing blistering heat on one side and extreme cold on the other, it is also not unlikely to have lost its atmosphere to solar flares long ago.

Things aren't looking too hospitable close to home so far.

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