Scientists have discovered a planet in our galactic neighborhood which might be “Earth-like” and is only 4 light years away. The terrestrial exoplanet is orbiting a star which is closest to our own sun, Proxima Centauri in the Alpha Centauri star system. Silicon Republic reports: By comparison, the previous best Earth-like planet candidate, dubbed Kepler 452-b, discovered last year, is located 1,400 light years away, far outside humanity’s hopes of ever reaching it. Formal announcement due within weeks The discovery was made by the European Space Observatory (ESO), which plans to reveal further details on the planet as part of a major announcement towards the end of August. Revealed by the German newspaper Der Spiegel, the planet is believed to exist within the ‘Goldilocks zone’ of the star system that could sustain a habitable environment for life. This new planet could join only a handful of other planets deemed Earth-like, despite the discovery of thousands of exoplanets using the Kepler Space Telescope, and astronomers will now hope to analyse the planet’s location in further detail. However, the discovery has yet to be corroborated by the international scientific community – as it has yet to be formally announced – but sources [...]
