Proxima b: The Nearest Potentially Habitable World in Proxima Centauri's Habitable Zone

To the point

An international team led by Guillem Anglada-Escudé announced Proxima b, a planet around Proxima Centauri about 1.3 times Earth’s mass, 11.2 days per orbit, receiving roughly 70% of Earth’s sunlight, that sits in the conservative habitable zone where liquid water could exist if geologic and atmospheric conditions are right, though its tidal locking and the star’s strong activity make its climate tricky unless a thick atmosphere or ocean helps and a magnetic field offers protection, making it a prime nearby target for future transit or direct imaging studies and a key example in studying habitability around red dwarfs, with Abel Méndez contributing to the Habitable Exoplanets Catalog results.