Proxima Centauri, our Sun’s nearest neighbor might have a planet orbiting around it. It has an orbit of 1.5 times of our earth’s orbit and is about half the size of Neptune. Proxima was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes. The planet wasn’t discovered until recently. The new planet was discovered by looking at the data produced by the star’s spectra. Small movements in the spectra light can be used to discover these new planets. The movements are gravitational pulls from the unseen planet.
Key Takeaways:
- Potentially habitable planets have higher significance to some scientists than other planets.
- Technology is increasing and evolving, and allows the more accurate detection of celestial bodies.
- A new, second potentially habitable planet has been discovered near one of our closest neighboring stars.
“The history of detecting and understanding exoplanets has been driven forward by a wide variety of techniques.”
