Hi everyone,
I just leaned today that Alpha Centauri (our neighbor solar system) has a third start, a dwarf, called Proxima Centauri.
According to several scientific studies, this red dwarf was not native to the Alpha Centauri system, but captured afterwards.
Most interesting is that the red dwarf has a exoplanet, named Proxima Centauri b, orbiting within the habitable zone. This would make it the closest planet to Earth, which could support life (as we know it from our planet), at a distance of only 4.2 light-years. The planet, discovered in august 2016, was creating a lot a buzz in the media, but the latest findings are not that optimistic: the planet faces solar winds that are 2000 stronger than the ones we are facing on Earth, making it unlikely to be habitable.
This article is my "Day 15" entry to the #challenge30days challenge, initiated by @alexvan in his effort to help the development of the Steemit community, encouraging users to publish articles for 30 consecutive days.