Unconfirmed rumors have appeared recently talking about a planet with the size of the Earth orbiting within the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star to our Sun. The story first appeared in the German weekly magazine Der Spiegel, but so far the source of this information is still unknown.

The magazine Der Spiegel credits this discovery to the European Southern Observatory. Four years ago, in order to widespread fanfare, the European Southern Observatory gave an announcement of the existence of Alpha Centauri Bb. The Alpha Centauri Bb would have set a record as being the closest planet outside the Solar System. Sadly, however, later evidence led to retraction of the claim. Naturally this made the European Southern Observatory especially anxious to protect its high reputation and not make another unsubstantiated claim like this. So, if the report is indeed true, the delay in giving a final report could mean their desire to make triple check of the findings for possible errors before making an official announcement. Even the anonymous source of Der Spiegel said that they are working at the limit of a technically feasible measurement.

The silence from the European Southern Observatory means that, even if this planet does exists, the public will have to wait to find out how similar this planet is to the Planet Earth in mass. Also, it is not clear whether the planet is located in the heart of Proxima Centauri’s habitable zone, or at the edges, where there are more tenuous conditions. However, even this planet lies at the best possible location, the tendency of the star to emit large flares would endanger any chances for life.

Proxima Centauri is an M-type star and is currently our closest neighbor outside the Solar System, at a distance of 4.2 light-years. The most recent research which related the Proxima Centauri to any planets was on whether the star’s small gravity might have affected the formation of planets around the stars in its orbit. As our scientist discovered new planets, the attention has turned to Proxima Centauri itself. A recent study calculated how distant a planet would need to be from Proxima Centauri in order for it to be habitable.

A project was announced in April that is supposed to send a spacecraft to Alpha Centauri within twenty years of its launch. If such rumors are true, the small neighboring star discovered 101 years ago could be an even more attractive target.