US EditionFour small planets discovered around one of the closest stars to Earth—an expert explains what we know
- Astronomers have identified four small rocky planets orbiting Barnard’s star, located about 6 light-years from Earth, making it the nearest single star with such a system.
- These planets are too hot to support life, similar to Mercury, and do not reside in a habitable zone.
- The study, led by Ritvik Basant, used data from advanced telescopes to enhance the detection of low-mass planets around Barnard's star.
- The planets' masses are all less than Earth's, with the innermost being 26% of Earth's mass and completing orbits in just a few days.
67 Articles
67 Articles
Astronomers Find Four New Exoplanets Orbiting a Neighboring Star, the 'White Whale' of Planet Seekers
More than 60 years after the first debunked discovery of a planet orbiting Barnard’s Star, the closest single-star system to Earth, a pair of telescopes has revealed multiple rocky worlds around it
After 50 Years of Searching for Exoplanets, We Found Our Smallest Cosmic Neighbors Orbiting Local Star
Astronomers have identified 4 exoplanets orbiting the nearest single star to Earth, an effort that had been ongoing for 50 years and produced many false positives. These rather small planets are a stone’s throw from Earth in galactic terms, but were too small for previous instruments to detect. Barnard’s Star is a low-mass red dwarf […] The post After 50 Years of Searching for Exoplanets, We Found Our Smallest Cosmic Neighbors Orbiting Local Sta…
Four small planets discovered around one of the closest stars to Earth—an expert explains what we know
Barnard's Star is a small, dim star of the type that astronomers call red dwarfs. Consequently, even though it is one of the closest stars to Earth, such that its light takes only six years to get here, it is too faint to be seen with the naked eye. Now, four small planets have been found orbiting the star. Teams in America and Europe achieved this challenging detection by exploiting precision instruments on the world's largest telescopes.
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