it can be liquid water and primitive life.
Around the nearest star to the Sun Proxima Centauri planet similar to Earth.
This was confirmed by an international group of scientists thanks to the Swiss ESPRESSO spectrograph installed on ESO’s Very large telescope (VLT) in Chile. The work of astronomers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Proxima Centauri at approximately 4.2 light years from Earth. The planet Proxima b was first discovered four years ago with the old HARPS spectrograph. A better ESPRESSO made accurate measurements, confirmed its existence and to clarify the features of the nearest “second Earth”.
the Mass of Proxima b 1.17 times the mass of the Earth. The planet is in the habitable zone of its star and makes a full revolution around it in just 11.2 per day.
Although Proxima b is about 20 times closer to its star than Earth is to the Sun, it receives from red dwarf about the same radiation. This means that the surface water can exist in liquid form, and in it basic life.
the Planet is called the ideal candidate for researches in the field of biomarkers. However, it is unknown whether the planet’s atmosphere that protects it from the deadly x-ray radiation, which “bombards” her star. The answer to this and other questions, scientists hope to obtain with the help of more sophisticated spectrometers of the future.
Anna Lysenko
