Graphical simulation of Proxima Centauri and its two planets. Proxima c, lower left, is surrounded by a hypothetical ring system, which would explain the excess of brightness found in SPHERE images [Michele Diodati]

Proxima Centauri and Its Two Planets

With a distance of 4.2 light-years, Proxima Centauri is the closest star to Earth after the Sun. For this reason, the red dwarf is an ideal target for the search for exoplanets. Proxima b, an Earth-mass planet discovered in 2016, has recently been joined by a new planet candidate, Proxima c, more likely similar to Uranus and Neptune. The unusual brightness in the direct images obtained with ESO’s Very Large Telescope leads astronomers to think that a vast system of rings surrounds Proxima c

Proxima Centauri

Proxima Centauri is the closest star to the Solar System. It is demonstrated by its parallax angle, which, measured by the Gaia satellite, is equal to 0.768 thousandths of an arc second. To clarify, this is a tiny angle: you need about 4.7 million of this size to form an angle of only 1 degree. But it is the largest parallax angle formed by any star visible from Earth. From it, we obtain a distance of “only” 1.301 parsecs or 4.244 light-years, that is, just over 40,000 billion kilometers. It is almost 270,000 times…