Astronomers discover most significant earth-like planet to date. Huge news

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After scanning the vast reaches of the cosmos for Earth-like planets where life might exist, astronomers have found one right next door.

A planet that is rocky like Earth and only slightly bigger has been discovered orbiting Proxima Centauri , the nearest star to our solar system, scientists reported Wednesday. It is probably in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold Goldilocks Zone where liquid water — a key to life — is possible, if the planet has an atmosphere. And it is a mere 4.22 light-years from Earth, or nearly 25 trillion miles.

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It is easily the closest potentially habitable planet ever detected outside our solar system — and one that could be reachable by tiny, unmanned space probes before the end of the century, in time for some people alive today to witness it.

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]It is 4.6 million miles from its red dwarf star, or just one-twentieth of the distance between Earth and the sun, creating an incredible orange sky with no blue, so it looks like a perpetual sunset.[/b] And if that's not different enough, the planet circles its star so quickly that its year is about 11 days.

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The planet doesn't rotate, so one side is always facing its star and the other side is always dark and colder.

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Yet in the vastness of space, Proxima b is practically just over the fence, "like your next-door neighbor," Butler said. Proxima b is more than 50 trillion miles closer than the previous closest potentially habitable exoplanet.

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