Nearby Habitable-Zone Exoplanet May Be a World of Fire and Ice

image via New Scientist

February 3, 2025, 2:00 PM

• •A newly confirmed exoplanet around a nearby sunlike star might be astronomers’ best chance yet to look for life beyond the solar system
• •This intriguing world is at least as massive as 6.5 Earths and has a distinctly noncircular 647-day orbit that traverses its star’s habitable zone
• •This strange new world is tantalizingly close: At scarcely 20 light-years from Earth, it’s within reach of deeper, more direct scrutiny by future space telescopes, beckoning astronomers to look closer.

A newly confirmed exoplanet around a nearby sunlike star might be astronomers’ best chance yet to look for life beyond the solar system—but it’s still no place like home.

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