Closest Earth-Size Planet May Get Robot Visitors--Here's How

An illustration shows what a visitor might see if they could stand on the surface of the Earth-size planet Proxima b. Just a few months ago, astronomers revealed that there is an Earth-size world orbiting Proxima Centauri, the next star over. Now, a team of astrophysicists thinks there's a way to pay that planet a nice long visit sometime in the not-so-distant future. The method involves something similar to the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative, a plan unveiled last year that would send a fleet of small spacecraft toward the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, which includes Proxima. Propelled by a giant laser, those tiny spacecraft would zip through the system in a matter of moments, furiously snapping photos, gathering data, and somehow relaying that information back to Earth.