This ambitious program has paid off beyond our wildest dreams in that we have now unambiguously detected a planet with a minimum mass 1.3 times that of Earth orbiting the star right in the middle of the goldilocks zone (0.05 AU). I am not a specialist in radial-velocity measurement, but this detection seems quite convincing in that it has a false-alarm probability of less than 0.1% and uses a careful comparison of star activity (done by using additional small telescopes during the survey) that are known to mimic the signal of a planet. That is a very significant new data point to add in our cosmic map.

Did we find a terrestrial planet?

We don’t know for sure. The planet’s MINIMUM mass is 1.3 Earths because we don’t really know the orientation of the orbital plane with respect to the observer. (The radial-velocity method provides a measurement of m sin i, with i being the inclination of the system with respect to us.) Assuming random orientations of orbital planes, we have a 90% probability that the true mass is less than 2.3 times the minimum mass, so 3 Earths. In short, this could be a super-Earth or something more exotic, like a baby-Neptune.

Have we found a cousin of Earth?

Not yet. We don’t know the composition of the planet—keep in mind that we haven’t seen it but only its effect on its star. Consequently, we don’t have much information on the planet itself, but we do have a constraint on its mass (see above) and its orbit (one year of Proxima Centauri b is 11.2 days). Since the planet does not transit its star, we don't know yet its size, hence its density.

Can life exist on this planet?

The planet is at the right place to have a temperature that allows the presence of liquid water on its surface. The question of habitability is however very complex. We need to confirm that this is a terrestrial planet. The best way to do that would be to directly image the planet using the giant telescopes equipped with extreme adaptive optics that are currently being built (i.e., the E-ELT, TMT, GMT). The angular separation between the star and the planet is 39 milli-arcsec, so a telescope as large as 30 m could resolve the system with the right instrument, detecting the planet and possibly giving us insights into its composition.

Can life thrive on this planet?

This planetary system is different from ours. Proxima Centauri is a M-type star that is known for sporadic flares, or outbursts of energy. Those luminous UV and X-ray flares could have sterilized the surface of the planet regularly and/or ejected a significant part of its atmosphere into space. The authors briefly discussed the possibility of habitability given the possible presence of an extreme environment. I am betting that several follow-up papers on this topic will be published very soon. Astrobiology has taught us that life on Earth is resilient and can be found in extreme environments like deep oceans or protected from UV light in underground caves, so the possibility of a life somewhere in Proxima Centauri b cannot be rejected.

Ultimately, this discovery is a significant step on the road to mapping our galaxy. And it has given us a new world to explore, and one that is not too far away. We may not go there any time soon, but it will motivate us (and our funding agencies!) to design and build instruments to image and characterize this planet. What could possibly be more exciting than, in the not-too-distant future, getting a picture of a terrestrial planet whose atmosphere we can see and on which we could possibly detect signatures of life? That monumental moment may come in the next decade, and will definitely happen faster now that we know where to point our telescopes.

Let me close by saying that it is astonishing that we were able to detect this small planet after only three months of observations. The Pale Red Dot group is planning similar campaigns for other nearby stars. In the future, for example, we may know if Alpha Centauri A and B, another nearby system composed of two stars almost identical to the sun, host a true cousin of the planet we call home.

We have no way of knowing where this quest will go, or when, or what it will find. But clearly, this could be the most astonishing journey in the history of humanity.

Save