“Close,” of course, is a relative term. No one’s getting there anytime soon: The newly found planet, which orbits a star called Alpha Centauri B, is about 4 light-years, or 23.5 trillion miles, away.The hunt for planets like our own has come up with a striking discovery: There’s a planet about the same size as Earth in the nearby Alpha Centauri system, and it's the closest planet found outside our solar system.
Based on its mass, the planet is a rocky world and not gaseous, said Xavier Dumusque of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland. He and his colleagues published the findings in the journal Nature.
The hunt for planets like our own has come up with this striking discovery:A planet about the same size as Earth in the nearby Alpha Centauri system, and it's the closest planet found outside our solar system.
Click on image of WISE satillite/telescope for more
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