Planet 5-7 times size of Earth found in the nearest star system?
Planet 5-7 times size of Earth found in the nearest star system?
Chethan Kumar | TNN | Feb 11, 2021, 22:30 IST
Representative image
Astronomers from Breakthrough Watch, the global astronomical programme looking for Earth-like planets around nearby stars say there’s an “intriguing possibility” of them having observed a planet roughly five to seven times the size of Earth orbiting within the habitable zone of the nearest sun-like star, just 4.37 light years away.
Breakthrough Watch — which has now announced a new observing technique with unprecedented sensitivity to directly image exoplanets — says initial observations also resulted in the detection of a weak signal in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A, part of the star system nearest to Earth.