Planet orbiting nearby star could have ocean

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An artist's concept of the planet -- with an ocean.
An artist's concept of the planet -- with an ocean.
Image: European Southern Observatory/M. Kornmesser.
A planet orbiting a neighboring star could have an ocean.

    Dubbed Proxima b, the planet orbits Proxima Centauri, a star only four light-years from our sun. And researchers believe it may be habitable, according to a NASA news release.
     Proxima b made news earlier this year when researchers wrote that it was at least 1.3 times the mass of Earth. Unlike the Earth’s sun, Proxima Centauri is a smaller star -- a red dwarf. The planet, Proxima b, can orbit the star in only 11 days. As a red dwarf, Proxima Centauri’s mass and radius are only one-tenth the size of our sun. (See the NASA/Harvard University website on Proxima Centauri.) 
    While researchers don't know the planet's radius, they were able to use the mass and calculations through models to make deductions about the planet. They believe that the planet’s radius may range from 0.94 to 1.4 times the radius of the Earth, the NASA news release said. Consider that Earth’s radius is 3,959 miles or 6,371 kilometers and, according to the study, the minimum radius for Proxima b is an estimated 3,722 miles or 5,990 kilometers.
    Given that, it is possible that Proxima b’s composition “might resemble Mercury’s, with a metal core making up two-thirds of the mass of the planet,” the NASA news release said. Using the models, researchers concluded that different scenarios were possible -- the planet could have a body of water and a gassy atmosphere, or it could be dry.
    The study is soon to be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and was led by researchers at the Marseille Astrophysics Laboratory in France.

   Related:

   Jumbo Earth-like planet orbits star

   Planet in habitable zone orbits sunlike star

   Scientists: Water possible on three planets

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