Astronomers spotted near Proxima Centauri strange “neighbors”

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Астрономы засекли возле Проксимы Центавра странных "соседей"In the vicinity of the nearest star to the Sun found the whole planetary system.

An international team of astronomers using the ALMA telescope have discovered evidence that in the vicinity of Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun is the planetary system and asteroid belt. The study is published in Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Scientists noticed at a distance of from one to four astronomical units from Proxima Centauri, the glow of cold dust.

“Dust around Proxima is a very important finding. After opening earth-like planet Proxima b this is the first evidence of the existence of the nearest star to the Sun multicomponent planetary systems, not just single planets,” said co-author Guillem Anglada.

Observations have shown that most dust is concentrated in a zone at a distance of up to several hundred million kilometers from Proxima Centauri.

The total mass of dust in this zone is about one-hundredth the mass of Earth, and its temperature is estimated at minus 230 degrees Celsius, which is close to the temperature of the Kuiper belt in the Solar system.

Data suggest that around Proxima Centauri also has another, colder dust belt. Both zones are located much further from the star than Proxima b whose orbit is from the sun at four million kilometers.

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