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Artist\u2019s impression of Barnard\u2019s star b, a planet in orbit around Barnard\u2019s star<\/p>\n
ESO\/M. Kornmesser<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
One of the sun\u2019s closest neighbours, Barnard\u2019s star, appears to have at least one planet orbiting it, as well as another three possible planets that need further confirmation.<\/p>\n
Astronomers have been looking for planets around Barnard\u2019s star, which at 5.96 light years away is the next-closest star to us after the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, since the 1960s.<\/p>\n
In 2018, researchers claimed to have found a planet that was at least three times larger than Earth, which they called Barnard\u2019s star b, but a follow-up analysis showed that the signals of the apparent planet were actually caused by higher than expected stellar activity.<\/p>\n
Now, Jonay Gonz\u00e1lez Hern\u00e1ndez at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics and his colleagues say they have found a new Barnard\u2019s star b, which is around 40 per cent as massive as Earth.<\/p>\n
The planet is much closer to its star than any planets in our solar system, completing an orbit in just over three Earth days. This also means its surface is too hot for liquid water or life, with a temperature of around 125\u00b0C (257\u00b0F).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Gonz\u00e1lez Hern\u00e1ndez and his team found the star by watching for tiny wobbles in the position of Barnard\u2019s star caused by the gravity of its orbiting planet, using an instrument on the European Southern Observatory\u2019s Very Large Telescope in Chile called ESPRESSO.<\/p>\n They also found evidence for three more planets orbiting the star. However, the signals weren\u2019t strong enough to say for certain, so they will need further observations to confirm it.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are very tricky detections, and it\u2019s always hard because you have the activity of the star, the stellar magnetic fields, which are rotating with the star,\u201d says Rodrigo Fernando D\u00edaz at the National University of San Mart\u00edn in Argentina. Gonz\u00e1lez Hern\u00e1ndez and his team have been thorough in checking that their observations were from a planet, but there could always be \u201cunknown unknowns\u201d, says Fernando D\u00edaz. Truly confirming this will require data from another telescope, which could take years of observations, he says.<\/p>\n Topics:<\/p>\n<\/section><\/div>\n