Both NASA’s $8.8 billion James Webb Space Telescope and the agency’s $228 million Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite are set for launch next year. They spotted it with two telescopes in Arizona and South Africa especially designed to spot planets orbiting very bright stars. Astronomers using NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope and the W.M. Planets around double stars—like the desert planet Tatooine in Star Wars—are relatively common, astronomers have discovered. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MITThe closest of these promising Earth-sized worlds orbits a cool red dwarf star called Proxima Centauri about 4.2 light years away.

Source: Wall Street Journal June 05, 2017 15:00 UTC