Closest alien world to our solar system could be ripe for life, models suggest

Could alien life reside close to our stellar neighborhood? Astronomers are taking that question a bit more seriously as new models increasingly suggest that the closest Earth-like planet to our solar system could be habitable. Researchers first started playing a bit of “fantasy exoplanet” with the rocky world—dubbed Proxima b—last year after scientists discovered it orbiting our nearest neighbor star, Proxima Centauri. With knowledge only of the luminosity of the star (1/600 that of the sun), the mass of the planet (1.3 times that of Earth), and the length of its orbit (11.2 days), the team was able to predict that, with a variety of possible atmospheres, it would be possible for Proxima b to harbor liquid water on its surface. Now, another team has upped the level of detail by taking a climate model designed for Earth—the Unified Model developed by the United Kingdom's Met Office—and pasted it onto Proxima b.