In the search for a planet that can support human life, a nearby star may perhaps hold the answers for a group of astronomers in Chile, as well as those involved in the Pale Red Dot campaign.

Using the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope, the researchers have gone on a quest to look for an Earth-like exoplanet in the area around Proxima Centauri, which is the nearest star to the Solar System.

According to Fox News Latino, the astronomers will glean information about the neighboring star, a red dwarf 4.2 light-years or around 25 trillion miles from planet Earth, to determine whether it is orbited by another planet. The latter's presence will be indicated by "wobbles" in the star's movement.

Past investigations have led to speculations that the star has a companion orbiting it, raising hopes that the orbiting body may be a habitable one.

"If our expectations are confirmed, that place will be the next-best site to look for extraterrestrial life," noted James Jenkins, an astronomer from the University of Chile.

The observatory used for the hunt is located in the Atacama desert, at an altitude of about 2,400 meters. It is one of the facilities participating in the Pale Red Dot project, which is a collaborative effort to find an Earth-like planetary habitat around Proxima Centauri, as per EarthSky.Org.

The public can follow the developments in the campaign, which began in Chile on January 15 this year and will continue through April.

The name of the project was inspired by the well-known blue dot image of the Earth, as taken from Voyager 1 in 1990. Considering Proxima Centauri is a red star, researchers anticipate that a possible Earth-like discovery near it may appear reddish.

Previously, in 2013, the move to search for habitable planets nearest to the Solar System was highlighted as astronomers announced that Proxima Centauri may align with a background star twice -- in October 2014 and in February 2016. This means that researchers will be able to make more definite calculations of planetary mass.

As per Discovery News, the alignments will help researchers use Einstein's general relativity theory as it provides how gravity curves space, and even time.

"Sometimes when gravity bends light waves, objects that previously weren't visible can be seen," its report went on. "When Proxima Centauri aligns with background stars, astronomers want to measure the distorted views of the background stars to get a more precise calculation of our neighbor's mass."

As such, if there are any other planets orbiting the star, it is probable that a secondary change in the background stars' positioning may be observed.

The results of this study is expected to be released by the end of 2016.

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