Source: ESO Science Release eso1241
Artist’s impression of the planet around Alpha Centauri B.
Image credits: ESO/L. Calçada/N. Risinger.
European astronomers have discovered a planet with about the mass of the Earth orbiting a star in the Alpha Centauri system — the nearest to Earth. It is also the lightest exoplanet ever discovered around a star like the Sun. The planet was detected using the HARPS instrument on the 3.6-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The results will appear online in the journal Nature on 17 October 2012. (read more)
