This is a surprise. Most exoplanets are either too big, or too gassy, or too far away to be more than intriguing ideas. It looks like we are lucky. The closest star to our star is Alpha Centauri, actually Proxima Centauri, not only has a planet, but it has a rocky planet, like Earth, at a favorable distance from the star, like Earth. Our eventual journey to Earth-like planets may take far less time than we expected. The journey would be very long, but it just became as short as possible. Now, we have to decide how to cross the 4 light years (about 25,000,000,000,000 miles – 25T if I got that right) in what would probably be a one-way trip unless technology dramatically improves.
(Click on the image for the link.)
Pretending Not To Panic 