Proxima b: Planet Found in Habitable Zone Around Nearest Star, ‘Temperature Suitable for Liquid Water to Exist on Its Surface’
August 24th, 2016Via: European Southern Observatory:
Astronomers using ESO telescopes and other facilities have found clear evidence of a planet orbiting the closest star to Earth, Proxima Centauri. The long-sought world, designated Proxima b, orbits its cool red parent star every 11 days and has a temperature suitable for liquid water to exist on its surface. This rocky world is a little more massive than the Earth and is the closest exoplanet to us — and it may also be the closest possible abode for life outside the Solar System.
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I wonder how abundant these planets are.
In this case, my thoughts were:
1. Support for the strong and even stronger versions of the anthropic principle?
2. A plausible planet of origin for a staged arrival of ‘aliens’?
“I wonder how abundant these planets are.”
I have no specific number to tell you, but we must keep in mind that the only reason we discovered so many giant planet and so few small ones is simply because our current instrument are not good enough yet to discover more of them. Having already found some earth like planet with our current instrument indicate to me that they must be extremly common in our galaxy.
@ rotger
Thanks for pointing that out 🙂