Society for Science & the Public, which publishes Science News, uses cookies to personalize your experience and improve our services. For more information on how we use cookies on our websites, visit our Cookie Policy.
Feature Astronomy

Year in review: A planet lurks around the star next door

Closest known exoplanet is ‘just’ 4.24 light-years away orbiting Proxima Centauri

proxima b

HEY NEIGHBOR Proxima b, depicted with its star in this illustration, is at least 1.3 times as massive as Earth — but that is just a minimum estimate.

L. Calçada, Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org)/ESO

By Christopher Crockett

This article is only available to Science News subscribers.

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address to access our archives.

Not a subscriber?

Science News is a nonprofit.

Support us by subscribing now.

More Stories from Science News on Astronomy

  1. Telescope and night sky
    Space

    New search methods are ramping up the hunt for alien intelligence

    By Maria Temming
  2. planet burning up near star illustration
    Space

    Red giant stars that eat planets might shine less brightly

    By Lisa Grossman
  3. illustration of orbiting black holes
    Quantum Physics

    Quantum mechanics means some black hole orbits are impossible to predict

    By Emily Conover
  4. quasar illustration
    Space

    Quasar winds with record energy levels were seen fleeing a distant galaxy

    By Lisa Grossman
  5. Milky Way dark matter glow illustration
    Space

    A controversial X-ray glow didn’t show up in the Milky Way’s dark matter halo

    By Lisa Grossman
  6. Milky Way
    Space

    Astronomers have found the edge of the Milky Way at last

    By Ken Croswell
  7. M87 black hole simulation
    Physics

    New telescopes could help spot ‘photon ring’ of the first black hole ever imaged

    By Emily Conover
  8. Astronomy

    The star Betelgeuse might just be dusty, not about to explode

    By Lisa Grossman

From the Nature Index

Paid Content