It is orbiting the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is a little more than four light-years away. The idea was to search for exoplanets in our neighbourhood, among the low-intensity, small stars that provide the easiest readings for new planet-searching instruments. Their existence has to be inferred by watching their parent stars wobble as they orbit them. But Proxima b is whipping around the star Proxima at just one-twentieth of the distance between the Earth and the Sun; its orbital period is all of 11 days. The Pale Red Dot investigators, as I say, do not have anything like a traditional photograph of Proxima b, or even an artist’s impression.

Source: National Post August 25, 2016 20:03 UTC