Have we found a new planet 🪐

Astronomers using the James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun, Alpha Centauri.

Visible only from Earth’s Southern hemisphere, the Alpha Centauri star system is made up of the binary Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B, and the faint red dwarf star Proxima Centauri.

While there are three confirmed planets orbiting Proxima Centauri, the presence of other worlds surrounding Alpha Centauri A and Alpha Centauri B has proved challenging to confirm.

Now, Webb’s observations from its Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) are providing the strongest evidence to date of a gas giant orbiting Alpha Centauri A.

If confirmed, the planet would be the closest to Earth that orbits in the habitable zone of a Sun-like star. However, because the planet candidate is a gas giant, scientists say it would not support life as we know it.