New planet found in our Solar System’s neighbor – within reach of exploration

A NEW planet has been discovered in our closest planetary system.

It’s only 25% the mass of Earth and likely isn’t habitable.

L. Calçada/ESOThe new planet is in the closest planetary system to us[/caption]

The new planet is the third planet that’s been found in its planetary system.

It could indicate that there’s many more planets to be found in that region and we could be looking at a system similar to our Solar System.

The planet orbits a star called Proxima Centauri.

That’s the closest star to our Sun.

It’s four light years away which isn’t that far as exoplanets go.

João Faria, a researcher at the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, said: “The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbour seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration.”

A planet outside our Solar System is called an exoplanet and scientists hunt for them all the time.

A big aim of this is to find a planet similar to our own.

Some researchers think a similar planet discovery could help us find alien life.

The new exoplanet doesn’t look like it could support life though.

It’s said to orbit too close to its star for liquid water to be present.