Ross 128 b is a temperate world about the mass of Earth, 11 light-years away, circling a cool red dwarf every 10 days. Its star is unusually calm: unlike Proxima Centauri, it rarely flares. And it is moving toward us: in about 79,000 years it is expected to become our nearest stellar neighbour, making Ross 128 b the closest known planet beyond the Solar System.
A new real world every day, built from NASA data.
Sources:
• Planet data: NASA Exoplanet Archive, Planetary Systems table (exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu)
• Discovery with HARPS, temperate orbit, quiet star, approach to the Sun (nearest in about 79,000 years): Bonfils et al. 2018, Astronomy & Astrophysics 613, A25, “A temperate exo-Earth around a quiet M dwarf at 3.4 parsecs”; ESO press release eso1736 (15 November 2017)
• Rock-and-iron interior, possibly a larger core than Earth’s: Souto et al. 2018, The Astrophysical Journal Letters 860, L15, “Stellar and Planetary Characterization of the Ross 128 Exoplanetary System from APOGEE Spectra”
• Mass is a minimum (radial-velocity method); temperature is an estimate.
Footage & images (artist’s impressions unless noted):
• Ross 128 b: ESO/M. Kornmesser (eso1736a, eso1736c), CC BY 4.0
• Zoom to Ross 128 (sky survey images): ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) (eso1736b), CC BY 4.0
• Proxima Centauri (comparison): ESO/L. Calçada/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) (eso1629d), CC BY 4.0
Narration: AI voice (Kokoro TTS). Music: original.
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