It looks like an exoplanet has been discovered that’s just 4 light years from earth! So, close, yet so far. I’m not thinking of emigrating soon, as it’s probably a gas giant with a mass similar to Saturn. Not my ideal spot for a summer home. Here’s a couple of articles about it, plus a discussion of the discovery by some SETI scientists.
Awesome news. And where there are gas giants, there are likely moons! If so, one of them could provide relatively habitable conditions (compared to a gas giant, anyway). All the more reason for missions like JUICE & Europa Clipper-- the more we know about the bodies in our solar system and their ability to support life, the easier it is to extrapolate about other star systems.
The planet’s possible existence in a binary (technically trinary) system also raised my eyebrows. Much has been made of the three-body problem and the ejection or collision of planets in binary star systems, but here is potential evidence that a planet can hang on for billions of years. Good to know since so many stars are a part of multiple-star systems.