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Nature Research, Nature, 7617(536), p. 437-440, 2016

DOI: 10.1038/nature19106

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A terrestrial planet candidate in a temperate orbit around Proxima Centauri

Journal article published in 2016 by Guillem Anglada-Escude, Pedro J. Amado ORCID, John Barnes, Zaira M. Berdinas ORCID, R. Paul Butler, Gavin A. L. Coleman ORCID, Ignacio de la Cueva, Ignacio de la Cueva, Stefan Dreizler, Michael Endl, Benjamin Giesers, Sandra V. Jeffers, James Stewart Jenkins, Hugh R. A. Jones ORCID, Marcin Kiraga and other authors.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

At a distance of 1.295 parsecs(1), the red dwarf Proxima Centauri (a Centauri C, GL 551, HIP 70890 or simply Proxima) is the Sun's closest stellar neighbour and one of the best-studied low-mass stars. It has an effective temperature of only around 3,050 kelvin, a luminosity of 0.15 per cent of that of the Sun, a measured radius of 14 per cent of the radius of the Sun2 and a mass of about 12 per cent of the mass of the Sun. Although Proxima is considered a moderately active star, its rotation period is about 83 days (ref. 3) and its quiescent activity levels and X-ray luminosity(4) are comparable to those of the Sun. Here we report observations that reveal the presence of a small planet with a minimum mass of about 1.3 Earth masses orbiting Proxima with a period of approximately 11.2 days at a semi-major-axis distance of around 0.05 astronomical units. Its equilibrium temperature is within the range where water could be liquid on its surface(5).