Proxima b
Position on the route: 35/45 · level needed 1000 · journey (Mk0 engine) 292.6 h
By the numbers
| Distance | 4.24 light-years |
|---|---|
| Star | Proxima Centauri, red dwarf |
| Mass | ≥ 1.07 Earth |
| Year | 11.2 days |
| Orbit | 0.05 AU |
| Equilibrium temperature | −39 °C (no atmosphere) |
| Discovery | 2016, ESO |
The story
A planet in the habitable zone of the nearest star to the Sun: the closest exoplanet to us. Its star is a red dwarf 600 times fainter than the Sun, so the planet sits ten times closer than Mercury and circles it in 11 days. Very likely tidally locked: one face in endless day, the other in endless night.
The big question is whether it kept an atmosphere. Proxima Centauri is a violently flaring star; a flare in 2017 brightened it a thousandfold for a minute. Under that bombardment an atmosphere may not last billions of years. A strong magnetic field would give it a chance.
Breakthrough Starshot proposes gram-scale sail probes pushed by lasers to a fifth of light speed, arriving in 20 years. With chemical rockets the trip takes tens of thousands of years; the game’s cryo-sleep and warp research bridge that gap.
Missions
- None yet; Breakthrough Starshot (concept), JWST atmosphere observations
Colony note
The first interstellar colony. The twilight belt of a tidally locked world is the mildest place; underground against the flares.
What probes bring back
- A stellar flare: a thousandfold brightening in a minute; a risk to any atmosphere.
- Tidal locking confirmed; the twilight belt at −10 to 20 °C.
- Mass 1.07 Earth; rocky composition.