scientists discovered a strange new
planet orbiting the closest star to our
sun but it wasn't a happenstance
happy-go-lucky discovery it was a
time-consuming and meticulous task that
took the better part of a decade the
great abolitionist and visionary
frederick douglass who was certainly not
an astronomer but was wise enough to
create a legendary adage that proves
relevant and accurate throughout the
ages and in all aspects of various
fields said if there is no struggle
there is no progress and with this
proverb scientists have spent many long
years discovering that large object that
was floating around our solar system's
closest neighbor sun called proxima d
prepare for some close encounters and
stay tuned in until the end as some
shocking discoveries are brought to the
forefront for the masses
this newly discovered planet labeled
proxima d is the third planet found
orbiting proxima centauri which is a red
dwarf star about 4.24 light years from
our glorious yellow radiated sun
unfortunately since proxima d is closer
to its red dwarf star than mercury is to
our sun astronomers reckon it's too
unlikely to host liquid water yet
astonishingly it has gained the number
one spot as the lightest exoplanet ever
discovered as a matter of fact proxima d
is just a quarter of the mass of earth
it orbits its sun proxima centauri from
2.4 million miles or 4 million
kilometers and completes an orbit in
just five earth days according to the
experts low mass planets such as proxima
d are expected to be the most abundant
in our galaxy and could potentially host
life with this discovery came a
sensation of relief as astronomers are
ecstatic to find earth-like planets a
team of astronomers used the a shell
spectrograph for rocky exoplanets and
stable spectroscopic observations which
is simply known as espresso is an
instrument on the european southern
observatory's very large telescope or
eso's vlt in the atacama desert in chile
south america with the help of this tool
and the eso's vlt it took over two years
of observations to find proxima d
researcher joajo faria of the instituto
de astrophosico ecienza dospaco of
portugal and lead author of the study
published in astronomy and astrophysics
was quoted saying our closest stellar
neighbor seems to be packed with
interesting new worlds within reach of
further study and future exploration
proxima d was found using the radial
velocity of the host star to be clear
the radial velocity of an object with
respect to a given point is the rate of
change of the distance between the
object and the point so the radial
velocity is the component of the
object's velocity that points in the
direction of the radius connecting the
point and the object is that definition
lucid well let's put it this way a star
wobbles if there are planets in orbit
because they all orbit a common center
of mass and that's how astronomers found
proxima d pedro figuera espresso
instrument scientist at eso in chile
claims that this achievement is
extremely important it shows that the
radial velocity technique has the
potential to unveil a population of
light planets so far the vast majority
of exoplanets found are super earths
mini neptunes and hot jupiters these
findings clearly show espresso's
capabilities and it makes the space
expert community anticipate its future
findings researcher and author faria
went on to espouse after obtaining new
observations we were able to confirm
this signal as a new planet candidate i
was excited by the challenge of
detecting such a small signal and by
doing so discovering an exoplanet so
close to earth the discovery of proxima
d follows the earlier discovery by
astronomers of two other planets around
proxima centauri known as proxima b and
proxima c proxima b is an earth mass
planet that orbits the star every 11
days and is within the habitable zone
remember that the habitable zone is the
region around a star where it is not too
hot and not too cold for liquid water to
exist on the surface of surrounding
planets so astronomers are definitely
keeping a close eye on proxima b as for
proxima c scientists are still
anticipating discovering more which is
no easy feat because proxima c takes
over five years to orbit its star
scientists do know however that it is a
super earth or mini neptune and it lies
outside the habitable zone since a super
earth and mini neptune have been
mentioned twice in this presentation
it's vital that all listeners are up to
speed with the terminology a super earth
is a class of planets that are much more
massive than earth yet lighter than ice
giants like neptune and uranus super
earths are often made of gas rock or a
combination of both they are between
twice the size of earth and up to 10
times its mass neptunian planets
typically have hydrogen and
helium-dominated atmospheres and are
about four times the size or radius of
earth and almost 17 times its mass or
weight neptunian exoplanets may have a
mixture of interiors though all would be
rocky with heavier metals at their cores
proxima centauri is the nearest star to
our sun at 4.22 light years away it is
home to at least two planets and massive
solar flares yet this has changed due to
the discovery of proxima d the red dwarf
star known as proxima centauri isn't
visible to the eye but it's one of the
most recognized stars in the cosmos
that's due to the fact that alpha
centauri's star system is also home to
three known stars and the closest
stellar system to our golden sun of the
three stars in alpha centauri scientists
believe proxima is closest to us
earthlings there's quite the confusion
around proxima centauri however usually
when stars are so close to earth they
appear bright in our sky for example the
star sirius which is located in the
constellation canis major is the
brightest star in earth's sky but this
star is twice the distance from earth
than proxima centauri at about 8.6 light
years away so it's very peculiar why
proxima centauri isn't brighter in our
sky as it's just at 4.22 light years
away and as previously mentioned proxima
isn't even visible to the naked eye
alone well truth be told proxima
centauri is just too small for our naked
eyes to register it's a red dwarf star
which is actually one of the most common
sorts of stars in our milky way galaxy
it contains only about an eighth of our
sun's mass the faint red proxima
centauri is only three thousand one
hundred kelvin which burns at five
thousand one hundred degrees fahrenheit
or two thousand eight hundred celsius
whereas our golden sun commonly known as
soul burns at five
5778 kelvin which is an astounding 500
times brighter than proxima centauri to
spot proxima earthlings should head to
the southern hemisphere from there look
in the direction of the constellation
centaurus the centaur proxima is nearly
a fifth of a light year from alpha
centauri a and b because it's so far
from the two primary stars some
scientists question whether it's really
part of the star system all of these
nearby stars of proxima alpha centauri a
and b and our sun orbit together around
the center of our milky way galaxy just
relatively recently in 2016 the european
southern observatory or eso as
previously mentioned announced the
discovery of proxima d's brother proxima
b which is orbiting proxima centauri at
a distance of roughly 4.7 million miles
or about 7.5 million kilometers with an
orbital period of approximately 11.2
earth days according to studies its mass
is at least 1.3 times that of the earth
as for the best notion of proxima b it
is within the habitable zone of its star
and for the bitter part of the scenario
a 2017 study suggests that the exoplanet
does not have an atmosphere akin to
earth then three years later scientists
announced that they had discovered a
second planet orbiting the star and it
was dubbed proxima c this second planet
of proxima is a lot larger than earth
and orbits its star every
1907 days it orbits at about 1.5 times
the distance from its star than earth
orbits from the sun therefore it's
surely not within the habitable zone as
a matter of fact this entire solar
system is very volatile any planets
around proxima centauri have to contend
with massive flares that pop off the red
dwarf which could very easily spell doom
for the rocks rotating around the red
dwarf in april of 2021 astronomers noted
a flare or burst of radiation from
proxima that registered to be 100 times
more powerful than any flare seen from
our sun this mega flare ranks as one of
the most violent ever seen on a solitary
star anywhere in the galaxy so it's an
understatement to say that these flares
on proxima could definitely doom chances
for life on its planets yet astronomers
like r.o park lloyd of arizona state
university espouses notions of hope for
life on these planets he said the
verdict for life could actually go
either way on the one hand the flares
will eventually decimate a planet's
atmosphere but on the other hand it's
possible that flares could provide the
spark life the events that could happen
around proxima are endless and through
all the discoveries you can rely on
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