The planet as bright as a diamond flies next to the 'Two-sided Earth with life'

According to Sci-News, this will be one of the smallest exoplanets ever recorded. The world, called Proxima Centauri d, is located in the red dwarf star system Proxima Centauri just 4.2 light-years away.

Graphic image depicting the newly discovered planet

Proxima Centauri d is also the brightest exoplanet ever observed, sparkling like a cosmic diamond and almost completely engulfed in the light of its parent star, because it orbits extremely close to the parent star (4 million km, 1 /10 Sun-Mercury distance), it takes only 5 days to complete 1 orbit.

It's a rocky planet with about a quarter of the mass of Earth, which means it's extremely small.

Usually small planets that are so close to their parent star are difficult to see because they are obscured by the parent star's light, but Proxima Centauri d is an exception because it's so close to us that it's easier to see.

The Daily Mail quoted researcher João Faria from the Portuguese Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences, the lead author of the study, as saying that the new planet will be confirmed in 2020 when scientists observe this red dwarf system with a new spectroscopic instrument, ESPRESSO, aboard the Very Large Telescope in Chile of the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

Previously, this star system was famous for Proxima Centauri b, identified since 2016. Proxima Centauri b belongs to the group of "Earth-sized" planets, which rotate in a "locked" orbit with the parent star, which is always oriented. about the parent star with a single face in the same way that the Moon is locked by the Earth.

However, it is still in the habitable zone and there are many studies around the world that have shown the factors that prove Proxima Centauri b is alive, even possessing a civilization. Scientists hope that NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which has just been launched into orbit, will help confirm life on this planet.