Context: Recently, an international team of researchers has confirmed the existence of Proxima b, an Earth-like planet that's orbiting the closest star to our Solar System, Proxima Centauri which is only 4.2 light-years from the Sun. 
Key Findings

• A team of Santiago International Research has confirmed the discovery of an Earth-like planet. It is orbiting the Proxima Centauri, the star closest to our solar system. 
• The Proxima b was discovered in 2016 simply as a planet that is revolving Proxima Centauri. The recent discovery says that the planet is similar to that of the Earth.
• It is named Proxima b . Its mass is 1.17 times more than the Earth and it revolves around Centauri in 11.2 days. 
• Scientist associated with this discovery says that the confirmation of the existence of Proxima b was a big task and it is the most interesting planet around us.

How it is discovered?

• The discovery was made that the discovery of Proxima b was first made in 2016 with the help of HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Search). 
• This is a spectrograph placed in the telescope of the European Southern Observatory of Chile. It helps in searching for planets. 
• Scientists have been able to confirm this with the help of the new generation of spectrograph ESPRESSO. 
• It is also in the Observatory of Chile. This is three times more accurate than HARPS.

How it is as the planet Earth, but simply different?

• Proxima b is very close to its star, but still reaches as much energy as the sun due to the earth. It is believed that the temperature here may be such that the water is present in the liquid state and supports life. 
• Therefore scientists are quite excited about the possibility of alien life here. However, the problem here is that its star Centauri throws large amounts of X-Rage at its surrounding planets.
• Earth reaches 400 times more X-rays than on Proxima b. Therefore, scientists now have to find out if its atmosphere would have been able to protect against these ridges.

About Proxima Centauri

• Also called Proxima b or Alpha Centauri Cb is an exoplanet orbiting in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, which is the closest star to the Sun and part of a triple star system.
• It is a faint red dwarf lying just four light years away in the southern constellation of Centaurus.
• It is located approximately 4.2 light-years (1.3 parsecs, 40 trillion km, 25 trillion miles, or 265,000 AU) from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus, making it the closest known exoplanet to the Solar System.

What is an Exoplanet?

• Exoplanets are the planets that orbit around other stars located outside our solar system. Exoplanets are also called extrasolar planets. All the stars have atleast 1 planet revolving around them. Most of the exoplanets discovered so far are located in Milky way galaxy.

Which is the closest Exoplanet?

• The closest exoplanet is named Proxima Centauri b. It is a planet orbiting the closest star to the Sun, named Proxima Centauri.

How many Exoplanets have been confirmed?

• Approximately 4,000 exoplanets have been confirmed. These exoplanets were found in 3,096 systems. Out of these systems, 678 systems have more than one planet.

Which is the least massive Exoplanet?

• The least massive known exoplanet is named as Draugr. To get an understanding of its size, this exoplanet is twice the mass of the moon.

Which is the most distant discovered Exoplanet?

• It is named as SWEEPS-11/SWEEPS – 04. It is located 27,710 light-years away.

Which is the hottest Exoplanet discovered?

• The hottest exoplanet discovered is Kepler – 70b

Which is the biggest Exoplanet discovered?

• The biggest exoplanet discovered is Kepler – 39b.