Next door Earth like planet

this-planet-just-outside-our-solar-system-is-potentially-habitable

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"I'm pretty sure that in the next 10 years, we will know if it has an atmosphere and probably if it has oxygen," says Anglada-Escude, who adds that we could even see hints of any life that might be there. He thinks the news that our closest stellar neighbor is orbited by a world that has a shot at possibly supporting life is sure to spur interest in an interstellar mission to pay it a visit.

And while 4.25 light-years might seem like an impossibly vast distance, that's practically next door in the eyes of astronomers who are used to thinking on a cosmic scale.

"You can get to a tenth of the speed of light with present technology," Guinan notes, pointing out that a trip to this planet would take less than half a century.

"And that's not bad," he says. "That's feasible."

 An artist's depiction of the surface of the planet Proxima b as it orbits the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to our solar system. The planet is a bit more massive than Earth, scientists say, and circles its star once every 11 days.

ESO/M. Kornmesser/Nature