Closest Exoplanet In a Habital Zone Only 14 Light Years Away

Wolf 1061

Wolf 1061 is a red dwarf located 13.8 light years away in the constellation of Ophiuchus. It has three confirmed exoplanets orbiting it with periods of 5, 18, and 67 days.

Wolf 1061 has a temperature of 3,380 K compared to our own Sun's temperature of 5,778 K and only has a luminosity that is 1.2% of the Sun's. Thus a planet in that system would have to be fairly close to that star to be in the "habitable zone" and the planet with the 18 day orbital period fits the bill.

I recommend this table to learn more about the luminosity and distances of nearby stars.

Here is a good article I thought I'd pass along on the Wolf 1061 Habitable Planets:

Nearby star hosts closest alien planet in the 'habitable zone'

UNSW Australia astronomers have discovered the closest potentially habitable planet found outside our solar system so far, orbiting a star just 14 light years away. The planet, more than four times the mass of the Earth, is one of three that the team detected around a red dwarf star called Wolf 1061. "It is a particularly exciting find because all three planets are of low enough mass to be potentially rocky and have a solid surface, and the middle planet, Wolf 1061c, sits within the 'Goldilocks' zone where it might be possible for liquid water-and maybe even life-to exist," says lead study author UNSW's Dr Duncan Wright.

"It is fascinating to look out at the vastness of space and think a star so very close to us-a near neighbour-could host a habitable planet. "While a few other planets have been found that orbit stars closer to us than Wolf 1061, those planets are not considered to be remotely habitable," Dr Wright says. The three newly detected planets orbit the small, relatively cool and stable star about every 5, 18 and 67 days. Their masses are at least 1.4, 4.3 and 5.2 times that of Earth, respectively. The larger outer planet falls just outside the outer boundary of the habitable zones and is also likely to be rocky, while the smaller inner planet is too close to the star to be habitable. The discovery will be published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-12-nearby-star-hosts-closest-alien.html#jCp