In November 2025, UC Irvine astronomers announced a rocky super-Earth called GJ 251 c orbiting in a habitable zone less than 20 light-years away — close enough that the next generation of ground-based telescopes may actually photograph it directly

GJ 251 c is the kind of planet astronomers have been trying to find for decades: nearby, relatively small, in a temperate orbit, and separated from its star just enough that future telescopes may not have to infer its existence only from a wobble. The planet,…