From Infidel753:
The recently-discovered planet “Proxima b”, orbiting the star Proxima Centauri, is being hailed on news websites as a possible “Earthlike planet” — a term which crops up with some regularity in such reports. Planets beyond our solar system, in and of themselves, are no longer newsworthy — we’ve discovered well over three thousand of them — but “Earthlike” suggests a place with plants, animals, “normal” days and nights, and of course the comfortable temperature and oxygen-rich atmosphere that almost all planets in science-fiction movies miraculously have. There might even be Wookies or Klingons or Greys living there.
Proxima b is actually interesting from one viewpoint — it’s the nearest extrasolar planet ever discovered. Its sun Proxima Centauri is part of the Alpha Centauri system, which is our own solar system’s nearest interstellar neighbor.