Nearby quiet red dwarf hides the second-closest habitable-zone planet
In 2026, astronomers confirmed GJ 887 d, a planet in the habitable zone of the nearby red dwarf GJ 887 (about 10.7 light-years away), orbiting every 50.77 days with a minimum mass around six Earths, making it the second-closest such world after Proxima Centauri b. The detection, based on 277 HARPS radial-velocity measurements plus ESPRESSO data and Gaussian-process modeling to separate stellar activity, provides strong evidence for a real planet rather than stellar noise, though the planet does not transit, so its radius and atmosphere are unknown. Its equilibrium temperature is ~241 K, and it receives ~81% of Earth’s insolation. While GJ 887 is relatively magnetically quiet for a red dwarf, flares can occur; future direct-imaging efforts with missions like Habitable Worlds Observatory or LIFE could probe the planet, but current data只能 constrain mass and orbit. The system likely hosts at least four planets, with a fifth signal still unconfirmed.
