Joining the dots: Follow astronomersā?- new hunt for Earth-like planets
The astronomers who discovered the nearest potentially habitable planet to our Solar System are inviting the public to take part in their search for more Earth-like planets. Last year an international team of astronomers led by Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé, of Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), discovered a planet around the closest star to our Sun, Proxima Centauri. Details of the observing campaign were made publicly available via the innovative Pale Red Dot campaign. The team are now resuming their search for Earth-like planets around nearby stars and are today launching another initiative to bring the public into direct touch with the research as it happens. The Red Dots campaign will follow the astronomers as they look for planets around some of our nearest stellar neighbours. The target stars this time are Proxima Centauri (which the scientists suspect may have at least one more terrestrial planet in orbit around it), Barnard's Star, a red dwarf star just six light-years away and Ross 154, another red dwarf at a distance of nearly 10 light-years. Dr Guillem Anglada-Escudé said: ā??Exploration of the nearest stars for terrestrial planets is intrinsically exciting.
