Proxima

The nearest world. The biggest question.

In 2016, astronomers confirmed the existence of a planet orbiting Proxima Centauri - the closest star to our Sun, just 4.24 light years away. That planet, Proxima Centauri b, sits within its star's habitable zone, has roughly the mass of Earth, and may be the most important world ever discovered.

In Proxima, science writer Marcus Veylan tells the complete story of this extraordinary world - what we know, what we suspect, and what the answer to the oldest question in science might mean for our place in the universe.

• What it means to orbit a violent red dwarf - and why that may not be fatal to life
• The discovery that stunned the scientific community and captured the world's imagination
• Why tidal locking, stellar flares, and atmospheric loss are the three threats every nearby habitable world must survive
• Breakthrough Starshot - the audacious plan to send a spacecraft to another star within our lifetime
• How the next generation of Earth-based telescopes may detect life on Proxima b without ever leaving our planet
• What it would mean - for science, for philosophy, for every human being - if the nearest world turned out to be inhabited