Read about possible conditions and characteristics of Proxima b
This is a day in the history of humanity that will be remembered because of something discovered in the field of astronomy.
Competing with the headlines of a major earthquake with death and destruction in Italy, a severe tornado in Indianapolis, the torrid U.S. Presidential campaign, shameful skyrocketing of a lifesaving drug in the name of money only and not true costs, and terrorist attacks, we now have clear evidence for the closest exoplanet to Earth.
Known as Proxima b, this exoplanet - a planet beyond those in our solar system - is in an 11.2 day orbit around its parent Red Dwarf star, Proxima. Red Dwarfs are far more numerous than more massive stars, including our Sun by a very wide margin. Proxima is also part of a triple star system in the Southern Hemisphere and is located just 4.37 light years from Earth. Proxima is the closest star to Earth after our Sun.