It is located outside the so-called habitable zone, or the orbital region around a star in which an Earth-like planet can possess liquid water on its surface and possibly support life.

“We believe that this planet may be located at a distance of 80 astronomical units /a unit of length, roughly the distance from the Earth to the Sun, which is 150 million kilometers/ and is orbiting around the centre of the binary star system Alpha Centauri AB with an orbital period of about 100 years,” Ivan Shevchenko, the head of the laboratory of planets and small bodies dynamics at the Pulkovo Observatory, told ITAR-TASS.

Russian astronomers spot second planet in Alpha Centauri system