Astronomers have discovered a planet with a mass very comparable to the Earth, circling alpha Centauri B, one of our closest stellar neighbours merely 4 light years away! It’s a hot planet close to its parent star, but there’s probably more planets hiding in that system — and who knows, maybe one we’ll find one in the Goldilocks zone!
This finding is yet another indication that small rocky planets must be very common around stars — what would otherwise be the odds of finding one circling our nearest neighbour?