Life Beyond Earth: Earthlike planet found orbiting sun’s closest neighbor

Recently, astronomers have confirmed the existence of the closest extrasolar planet to home. This planet, “Proxima Centauri b” also known as “Proxima b”, orbits the third star within the Alpha Centauri system. The star “Proxima Centauri” is the closest star to the sun at a distance of 4.2 light-years away. More interestingly, the planet is located in the star’s habitable zone, the region where liquid water can exist on its surface.

Even though, the planet is in star’s habitable zone, there are a lot of questions and argument about the planet being habitable. The star, “Proxima Centauri” is a red dwarf star, much smaller and dimmer than the sun, which is also a flare star. The planet takes only 11 days to complete its orbit around the star compared the Earth’s 365 days orbit around the sun. This put the planet much closer in to the star even than mercury to the sun. However, Proxima Centauri is so much smaller and dimmer than the sun. The habitable zone is much closer in. Therefore, Planet Proxima b’s orbit is suitably positioned for oceans of liquid water to exist on its surface despite being 4.4 million miles away. But the problem is that, the planet being close to its star, which is a flare star, (the star which fluctuates with its brightness and constantly burst out solar flares), is bombarded with about 100 times more high energy radiation than the earth receives from the sun. This high energy radiation is capable of stripping the planet off its atmosphere, rendering it uninhabitable. If the planet has a strong magnetic shield, the shield can deflect most of the radiation, protecting the atmosphere, which offer additional protection to possible life on that planet.

Proxima b may not be the only planet. There are some evidences that other planets exist around Proxima Centauri. “Said the astronomers at the European Southern Observatry”.  More research is needed to confirm the existence of multiple planets around the star. The Earth-Like Exo-Planet proximity to us has given the scientist a better chance to answer the age old question, “Are we alone in the universe?” Even capture the image of the planet. With rapid advancement in our technology, we will be able to answer the age old question sooner than we think and highly likely, the answer will be “NO, we are NOT alone.”