Elon Musk Expresses Interest in Exoplanet Promixa Centauri B for Possible Future Spacecraft Mission

Elon Musk was intrigued by the exoplanet Promixa Centauri B, which is located a little over four light-years away in the Alpha Centauri star system.

Promixa Centauri B was discovered in 2016 and is considered particularly promising for the search for some form of extraterrestrial life. “Practically right next door,” the SpaceX CEO said in response to Amazing Astronomy’s tweet.

Some users subsequently began to speculate that Musk might be toying with the idea of ​​one day sending the Starship spacecraft being prepared to this exoplanet.

However, it is necessary to add that although Promixa Centauri B is really quite close to Earth in the context of cosmic distances, it is still much further away than, for example, Mars – and we have not yet managed to land on it either.

It is located in the so-called habitable zone, at such a distance from its host star Proxima Centauri that liquid water should neither evaporate nor freeze on it.

According to NASA however, it is possible that it experiences “bursts of extreme ultraviolet radiation hundreds of times greater than Earth receives from the Sun,” which could pose a problem for potential life.