Astronomers have found evidence of a new planet that is orbiting the star closest to the sun.
According to reports, the scientists used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, to confirm their findings - which was a body orbiting Proxima Centauri.
Proxima Centauri is a small, low-mass star located 4.2465 light-years away from the Sun in the southern constellation of Centaurus which was discovered in 1915 by Robert Innes.
This marks the third planet detected in the system and it is believed to be a quarter of Earth's mass.
It is also understood that the new discovery is just over four light-years away from the Sun, and is also one of the lightest planets outside the Solar System ever found.
Lead author Joao Faria, a researcher at the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences in Portugal, said: "The discovery shows that our closest stellar neighbour seems to be packed with interesting new worlds, within reach of further study and future exploration."
The new planet, named Proxima d, orbits Proxima Centauri at a distance of about four million kilometres.
Astronomers found it orbits between the star and the habitable zone, which is the area around a star where liquid water can exist at the surface of a planet.
It takes just five days for Proxima d to complete one orbit of Proxima Centauri, which is already known to host two other planets.
Mr Faria said: "After obtaining new observations, we were able to confirm this signal as a new planet candidate.
"I was excited by the challenge of detecting such a small signal and, by doing so, discovering an exoplanet so close to Earth."
