Proxima Centauri is our nearest neighbouring star; it’s just 4.2 light-years away.
比邻星是我们最近的邻星，它只有4.2光年远。
It has one planet that astronomers know of, a potentially habitable world called Proxima b.
据天文学家所知，它有一颗行星，一个潜在的宜居星球，叫做Proxima b。
But in a new study, researchers from Italy’s National Institute for Astrophysics report that they have observed changes in the star’s activity that indicate it could have another planet.
但在一项新的研究中，意大利国家天体物理研究所的研究人员报告说，他们观察到了这颗恒星活动的变化，表明它可能有另一颗行星。
They dubbed the world Proxima c in their paper, which was published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
他们在他们的论文中将世界比邻c命名为Proxima c，这篇论文于周三发表在“科学进步”杂志上。
The potential new planet seems to be a super-Earth – the term for a planet with a mass larger than Earth but significantly smaller than the ice giant Neptune.
潜在的新行星似乎是超级地球-这个术语指的是质量大于地球但明显小于冰川巨星海王星的行星。
“Proxima Centauri is the nearest star to the sun, and this detection would make it the closest planetary system to us,” astronomer Mario Damasso, the paper’s lead author, told Business Insider in an email.
“比邻星是距离太阳最近的恒星，这种探测将使它成为离我们最近的行星系统，”该论文的主要作者天文学家马里奥·达马索(Mario Damasso)在一封电子邮件中告诉“商业内幕”(Business Insider)。
Proxima c (if it exists) is probably not habitable – given its distance from its star, the planet is probably freezing or shrouded in a suffocating hydrogen-helium atmosphere.
Proxima c(如果存在的话)可能不适合居住-考虑到它与恒星的距离，这颗行星可能正在冰冻或笼罩在令人窒息的氢氦大气中。
But its proximity to us could offer a unique opportunity to study another star system.
但它靠近我们可以提供一个独特的机会来研究另一个恒星系统。
If it’s real, Proxima c should not exist where it is.
如果它是真实的，Proxima c不应该存在于它所在的地方。
