The Discovery of City Lights on Proxima B will Change Everything

What is Proxima B ?

Proxima Centauri b , sometimes referred to as Alpha Centauri Cb, is an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of the triple star system Alpha Centauri. It is approximately 4.2 ly (1.3 pc) from Earth in the constellation Centaurus, making it, the disputed Proxima c, and Proxima d the closest known exoplanets to the Solar System.

Proxima Centauri b orbits its star at a distance of roughly 0.05 AU (7.5 million km; 4.6 million mi) with an orbital period of approximately 11.2 Earth days. Its other properties are only poorly understood, but it is believed to be a potentially Earth-like planet with a minimum mass of 1.07 M🜨. The planet orbits within the habitable zone of its star. It is, however, not known whether or not it has an atmosphere. Proxima Centauri is a flare star with intense emission of electromagnetic radiation that could rip an atmosphere off the planet. The planet’s proximity to Earth offers an opportunity for robotic space exploration, for example, with the Breakthrough Starshot project.

Announced on 24 August 2016 by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), Proxima Centauri b was confirmed via several years of using the method of studying the radial velocity of its parent star. Furthermore, the discovery of Proxima Centauri b, a planet at habitable distances from the closest star to the Solar System, was a major discovery in planetology and has drawn interest to the Alpha Centauri star system that Proxima is a member of.

Let’s explore the closest exoplanet detected to date, four light years away from Earth lies Proxima B, which some astronomers have found potentially habitable. The Discovery of City Lights on Proxima B will Change Everything