Explore Proxima Centauri, Home of Proxima b, in Slooh Webcast Tonight

Red Dwarf Proxima Centauri over La Silla Observatory
A view of the skies over the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile. At bottom right is Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the sun; at bottom left is the pair of stars called Alpha Centauri A and B. (Image credit: Y. Beletsky (LCO)/ESO/ESA/NASA/M. Zamani)

You can check out the nearby star Proxima Centauri — which hosts a newly discovered, potentially Earth-like planet — during a free webcast by the Slooh Community Observatory tonight (Aug. 26).

The Slooh show features live telescope views of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf that's the sun's nearest stellar neighbor at just 4.22 light-years away. You can watch the webcast at Slooh.com, beginning at 8 p.m. EDT tonight (0000 GMT on Aug. 27). It should run about 30 minutes. You can also watch the Proxima Centauri show at Space.com, courtesy of Slooh.

On Wednesday (Aug. 24), a team of astronomers announced the discovery of Proxima b, a roughly Earth-mass planet that resides in Proxima Centauri's "habitable zone," the range of distances at which liquid water could exist on a world's surface.

Discovery team member Michael Endl, from the McDonald Observatory at the University of Texas at Austin, will join Slooh host Eric Edelman to discuss the find. Also participating is Lisa Kaltenegger, director of the Carl Sagan Institute at Cornell University in New York, who will discuss what Proxima b means for the search for alien life.

"It's amazing to watch that small, red dot live in the online telescopes every night and imagine the Earth-like world that we now know orbits the star," Slooh astronomer Paul Cox said in a statement. "With the possibility that liquid water exists on Proxima — who knows? — there may be some Centaurian amateur astronomers gazing back at us every night!"

While the Slooh webcast will provide good looks at Proxima Centauri, don't expect to see Proxima b; the planet is too small, and too close to its host star, to spot with current instruments. (However, the huge next-generation telescopes under construction in Chile and Hawaii should be able to do the job, astronomers have said.)

Viewers can ask questions and interact with the host and guests during the show by tweeting @Slooh or by joining in on the live chat on Slooh.com.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.

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Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer

Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.