The star is in the southern constellation of Centaurus, the Centaur, a half-man, half-horse of ancient Greek Mythology. Toliman is slightly smaller than our star with a solar radius of 0.8632 with an error of 0.0037. Rigil has a solar radius of about 1.2234 with an error of about 0.0053. It is one of three stars that make up the Alpha Centauri triple star system which is the nearest star system to us. It is roughly the same size as our own star. Rigil Kentaurus is a G Type star, very similar to that of our own star. We can live in hope that tomorrows engineers will work out a way to break the speed of light and enable us to travel like Jean-Luc Picard on board a ship similar to USS Enterprise NCC 1701D from Star Trek - The Next Generation. Travelling at the speed of light, it would take just over four years to get to the planet, do research for an unspecified length of time and then another four years to return back. The paper is freely available and can be downloaded or viewed at Nature website.Д¬urrent technology doesn't yet exist to enable to view the planet let alone visit the planet. The only thing about being in the Habitable/Goldilocks Zone is that life could survive on the planet. It isn't a forgone conclusion that if the planet does exist then there is life on the planet.

They make the assertion that the planet could be within the Goldilocks Zone of the planet. At present, the exoplanet is a candidate planet meaning further research and studying needs to be made before scientists are confident that there is indeed a planet in orbit. Scientists on the NEAR (Near Earths in the Alpha Cen Region) project have published a paper on Wednesday to say that they may have discovered an Extrasolar Planet (Exoplanet) in the orbit of Proxima Centauri. There had been speculation that an exoplanet was in orbit round Toliman, also known as Alpha Centauri B but since the initial interest, it doesn't seem that there is an exoplanet in orbit round Toliman. The second planet orbits at a distance greater than the Sun so it will be inhospitable for life as we know it. The Goldilocks Zone is the area around a star where the temperature is not too cold and not too hot for life to exist. Proxima Centauri is a Red Dwarf star meaning that its smaller and colder than our Sun and so the Goldilocks Zone will be closer to the star than what distance would be for a star similar to the Sun. The second planet in that solar system orbits at a distance further away from its star than the Earth does with its star. The nearest and first to have been discovered orbits at a distance closer to the star than that at which the Earth does to the The Sun and is hit by flares potentially destroying any atmosphere that the planet may have. It's been known for some time that there are a couple of planets orbiting round our nearest star, Proxima Centauri after the Sun but they are unlikely the support life.

Planet centauri guide