A Neptune-sized Candidate Planet in Alpha Centauri A’s Habitable Zone: Verification Pending

To the point

An international team using the Very Large Telescope detected a bright thermal signal in the habitable zone of Alpha Centauri A that hints at a Neptune-sized planet about 4.37 light-years away, a finding backed by the NEAR project supported by ESO and Breakthrough Watch and Yuri Milner, but the signal remains unverified and could be caused by hot dust, a distant background object, or stray photons, so follow-up observations are needed to confirm its existence and orbit, and if confirmed it would become one of the closest possible habitable worlds, though it would likely be a warm gas planet rather than Earth-like.