Proxima b
Artist\u2019s impression of the view from Proxima b. Image credit: ESA/M/ Kornmesser\n\nAfter a few weeks of rumours, the announcement of the discovery of an Earth-size (maybe!) planet around the Sun\u2019s nearest neighbour has caused quite a stir. The planet is more massive than the Earth, but probably not by much, and sits in a location where liquid water could (at least in principle), exist on it\u2019s surface. The detection was made by an international team using data, and relied on observations from a number of telescopes around the world. One of those was the Las Cumbres Observatory\u2018s network of telescopes, working as part of the Pale Red Dot campaign, as Edward Gomez explains in this month\u2019s episode.\nProxima b isn\u2019t the only story. There\u2019s also the happy news of the re-awakening\xa0of STEREO-B, a solar observatory that dropped offline a couple of years ago and has finally responded to NASA\u2019s hails (more on that\xa0from Sounds Like Science). And there\u2019s also the discovery of a Niku, a small object out beyond Neptune which is orbiting the Sun in the wrong direction.\n\nOriginally broadcast on 25th August 2016 as part of Pythagoras\u2019 Trousers on Radio Cardiff.