► Ross 128b

Ross 128b

A temperate Earth-sized planet has been discovered only 11 light-years from the Solar System by a team using ESO’s unique planet-hunting HARPS instrument. The new world has the designation Ross 128 b and is now the second-closest temperate planet to be detected after Proxima b.

There’s a new Earth-size planet on the block, and it’s the closest potentially habitable world that orbits a “quiet” life-friendly star.

Discovered just 11 light-years away, Ross 128b circles a small, dim star called a red dwarf. Red dwarfs are everywhere, making up about 70 percent of all stars in the galaxy; most of the stars in our immediate neighborhood are red dwarfs.

One Astronomical Unit, or AU, equals about 93 million miles (150 million km).

There's 63,000 astronomical units in one light-year, and 63,000 inches (160,000 cm) in one mile (1.6 km).