June 4, 2014

Artistic impression of the planet Kapteyn b with the 0mega Centauri cluster in the background (Image courtesy PHL / UPR Arecibo / Aladin Sky Atlas. All rights reserved)

An international team of astronomers led by Guillem Anglada-Escude of the Queen Mary University, London, announced that they have found two planets that orbit the Kapteyn’s star, only 13 light years from Earth. In particular, the planet Kapteyn b is interesting because it is a super-Earth, meaning a rocky planet with a mass about five times the Earth, where liquid water could exist, one of the essential requirements to host life as we know it.