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. 2016 Aug 25;536(7617):437-40.
doi: 10.1038/nature19106.

A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri

Guillem Anglada-Escudé  1 , Pedro J Amado  2 , John Barnes  3 , Zaira M Berdiñas  2 , R Paul Butler  4 , Gavin A L Coleman  1 , Ignacio de la Cueva  5 , Stefan Dreizler  6 , Michael Endl  7 , Benjamin Giesers  6 , Sandra V Jeffers  6 , James S Jenkins  8 , Hugh R A Jones  9 , Marcin Kiraga  10 , Martin Kürster  11 , Marίa J López-González  2 , Christopher J Marvin  6 , Nicolás Morales  2 , Julien Morin  12 , Richard P Nelson  1 , José L Ortiz  2 , Aviv Ofir  13 , Sijme-Jan Paardekooper  1 , Ansgar Reiners  6 , Eloy Rodríguez  2 , Cristina Rodrίguez-López  2 , Luis F Sarmiento  6 , John P Strachan  1 , Yiannis Tsapras  14 , Mikko Tuomi  9 , Mathias Zechmeister  6
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Free article

A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri

Guillem Anglada-Escudé et al. Nature. .
Free article

Abstract

At a distance of 1.295 parsecs, the red dwarf Proxima Centauri (α Centauri C, GL 551, HIP 70890 or simply Proxima) is the Sun's closest stellar neighbour and one of the best-studied low-mass stars. It has an effective temperature of only around 3,050 kelvin, a luminosity of 0.15 per cent of that of the Sun, a measured radius of 14 per cent of the radius of the Sun and a mass of about 12 per cent of the mass of the Sun. Although Proxima is considered a moderately active star, its rotation period is about 83 days (ref. 3) and its quiescent activity levels and X-ray luminosity are comparable to those of the Sun. Here we report observations that reveal the presence of a small planet with a minimum mass of about 1.3 Earth masses orbiting Proxima with a period of approximately 11.2 days at a semi-major-axis distance of around 0.05 astronomical units. Its equilibrium temperature is within the range where water could be liquid on its surface.

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References

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