A rare alignment of stars will give scientists the chance to find the closest alien world to our Solar System.
Astronomers around the world are currently scouring the skies with a variety of telescopes in an effort to locate planets beyond our own Sun.
Known as 'exoplanets', more than 860 of these strange worlds are suspected to have been found so far, including 723 confirmed planets and more than 100 that might have the potential to support life.
Many of these have been found by the Kepler space telescope, which recently experienced a critical failure but is now said to be "safe and stable" albeit not collecting data.
Finding these planets is very difficult, since they cannot be seen directly but only through the subtle shifts in light sent from distant stars.
The peculiarities of this approach mean that even searching for planets around our nearest star - Proxima Centauri, a cooler and smaller star than our sun about 4.24 light years away - is still extremely difficult.
Artists' Conceptions Of Extrasolar Planets
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Planet(01 of05)
Open Image ModalIn this handout illustration made available on December 5, 2011 by NASA, the Kepler-22b, a planet known to comfortably circle in the habitable zone of a sun-like star is digitally illustrated. For the first time NASA's Kepler mission has confirmed a planet to orbit in a star's habitable zone; the region around a star, where liquid water, a requirement for life on Earth, could persist. The planet is 2.4 times the size of Earth, making it the smallest yet found to orbit in the middle of the habit. Clouds could exist in this earth's atmosphere, as the artist's interpretive illustration depicts. (Photo Illustration by Ames/JPL-Caltech/NASA via Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
NASA's Kepler Mission Discovers Planet(02 of05)
Open Image Modal In this handout illustration made available on December 5, 2011 by NASA, a diagram compares our own solar system to Kepler-22, a star system containing the first 'habitable zone' planet discovered by NASA's Kepler mission. The habitable zone is the sweet spot around a star where temperatures are right for water to exist in its liquid form. Liquid water is essential for life on Earth. The diagram displays an artist's rendering of the planet comfortably orbiting within the habitable zone, similar to where Earth circles the sun. Kepler-22b has a yearly orbit of 289 days. The planet is the smallest known to orbit in the middle of the habitable zone of a sun-like star and is about 2.4 times the size of Earth. (Photo Illustration by Ames/JPL-Caltech/NASA via Getty Images) (credit:Getty)
Extrasolar Planet HD 209458 b, Osiris(03 of05)
Open Image ModalArtist's conception released by NASA of extrasolar planet HD 209458 b, also known as Osiris, orbiting its star in the constellation Pegasus, some 150 light years from Earth's solar system. Scientists have used an infrared spectrum -- the first ever obtained for an extrasolar planet -- to analyze Osiris' atmosphere, which is said to contain dust but no water. The planet's surface temperature is more than 700 Celsius (1330 Fahrenheit).' (credit:Getty)
Planet & Its Parent Star(04 of05)
Open Image ModalPicture released 04 October 2006 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of a Jupiter-sized planet passing in front of its parent star. Such events are called transits. When the planet transits the star, the star's apparent brightness drops by a few percent for a short period. Through this technique, astronomers can use the Hubble Space Telescope to search for planets across the galaxy by measuring periodic changes in a star's luminosity. The first class of exoplanets found by this technique are the so-called 'hot Jupiters,' which are so close to their stars they complete an orbit within days, or even hours. A seam of stars at the centre of the Milky Way has shown astronomers that an entirely new class of planets closely orbiting distant suns is waiting to be explored, according to a paper published 04 October 2006. An international team of astronomers, using a camera aboard NASA's Hubble telescope, delved into a zone of the Milky Way known as the 'galactic bulge', thus called because it is rich in stars and in the gas and dust which go to make up stars and planets. The finding opens up a new area of investigation for space scientists probing extrasolar planets - planets that orbit stars other than our own. AFP PHOTO NASA/ESA/K. SAHU (STScI) AND THE SWEEPS SCIENCE TEAM (credit:Getty)
Hot Jupiter(05 of05)
Open Image ModalPicture released 04 October 2006 by the European Space Agency shows an artist's impression of a unique type of exoplanet discovered with the Hubble Space Telescope. This image presents a purely speculative view of what such a 'hot Jupiter' (word dedicated to planets so close to their stars with such short orbital periods) might look like. A seam of stars at the centre of the Milky Way has shown astronomers that an entirely new class of planets closely orbiting distant suns is waiting to be explored, according to a paper published 04 October 2006. An international team of astronomers, using a camera aboard NASA's Hubble telescope, delved into a zone of the Milky Way known as the 'galactic bulge', thus called because it is rich in stars and in the gas and dust which go to make up stars and planets. The finding opens up a new area of investigation for space scientists probing extrasolar planets - planets that orbit stars other than our own. AFP PHOTO NASA/ESA/K. SAHU (STScI) AND THE SWEEPS SCIENCE TEAM (credit:Getty)
But when that star passes in front of background stars in October 2014 and February 2016, scientists may finally have the chance they need.
Using an effect known as gravitational lensing, in which the gravity of Proxima will bend the background light in measurable ways, to see if our nearest neighbouring sun may have planets of its own.
Instruments from the Hubble Space Telescope to the Very Large Telescope in Chile might be able to pick up signs of a planetary signature in the light curve, researchers at the Space Science Telescope Institute told Space.com.
The alignment will make it possible, potentially, to find planets orbiting Proxima Centauri up to four times the distance of Earth to the Sun. And that opens up the chance that rocky, Earth-like worlds could be among their number.
Already a very hot rocky world has been found around Alpha Centauri B, another star in the system.