<Tr> <Td> cold dust (unconfirmed) </Td> <Td_colspan="4"> ~ 30 AU </Td> <Td> 45 ° </Td> <Td>--</Td> </Tr> <P> The first indications of the exoplanet were found in 2013 by Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire from archival observation data . To confirm the possible discovery, the European Southern Observatory launched the Pale Red Dot project in January 2016 . On August 24, 2016, the team of 31 scientists from all around the world, led by Guillem Anglada - Escudé of Queen Mary University of London, confirmed the existence of Proxima Centauri b through a peer - reviewed article published by Nature . The measurements were performed using two spectrographs: HARPS on the ESO 3.6 m Telescope at La Silla Observatory and UVES on the 8 m Very Large Telescope at Paranal Observatory . </P> <Table> RV - derived upper mass limits of potential companions <Tr> <Th> Orbital period (days) </Th> <Th> Separation (AU) </Th> <Th> Maximum mass (M) </Th> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> 3.6--13.8 </Td> <Td> 0.022--0.054 </Td> <Td> 2--3 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> <100 </Td> <Td> <0.21 </Td> <Td> 8.5 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Td> <1000 </Td> <Td> <1 </Td> <Td> 16 </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Th> Orbital period (days) </Th> <Th> Separation (AU) </Th> <Th> Maximum mass (M) </Th> </Tr>

How far is proxima centauri from our galaxy