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Scientists Confirm Discovery Of Earth-Like Planet

Published August 24, 2016 at 1:11 PM EDT
In the sky above ESO's La Silla Observatory, the Southern Cross is visible to the right of the dome of a Danish 1.54-metre telescope. To the lower right of the image, two stars sparkle in the dark sky. From right to left, these are Alpha and Beta Centauri. Alpha Centauri is a multiple star, the nearest star system to Earth. A little closer to Earth than the bright components of Alpha Centauri, and invisible to the naked eye, is Proxima Centauri, the third star belonging to this multiple star system. (European Southern Observatory/Flickr)
In the sky above ESO's La Silla Observatory, the Southern Cross is visible to the right of the dome of a Danish 1.54-metre telescope. To the lower right of the image, two stars sparkle in the dark sky. From right to left, these are Alpha and Beta Centauri. Alpha Centauri is a multiple star, the nearest star system to Earth. A little closer to Earth than the bright components of Alpha Centauri, and invisible to the naked eye, is Proxima Centauri, the third star belonging to this multiple star system. (European Southern Observatory/Flickr)

Scientists announced the discovery of a habitable planet Wednesday, orbiting the solar system’s nearest neighboring sun Proxima Centauri.

Rumors of the finding circulated for several days and were confirmed by the European Southern Observatory (ESO), which added more details in a press conference.

Kelly Beatty of Sky & Telescope talks about the planet with Here & Now‘s Jeremy Hobson.

Guest

Kelly Beatty, senior editor at Sky & Telescope Magazine. He tweets @NightSkyGuy.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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