Planet spotted orbiting Barnard’s star just 6 light years away

Astronomers have detected an exoplanet around Barnard’s star, one of the sun’s closest neighbours, but it is too hot for liquid water or life

By Alex Wilkins

1 October 2024

Artist’s impression of Barnard’s star b, a planet in orbit around Barnard’s star

ESO/M. Kornmesser

One of the sun’s closest neighbours, Barnard’s star, appears to have at least one planet orbiting it, as well as another three possible planets that need further confirmation.

Astronomers have been looking for planets around Barnard’s 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.

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In 2018, researchers claimed to have found a planet that was at least three times larger than Earth, which they called Barnard’s star b, but a follow-up analysis showed that the signals of the apparent planet were actually caused by higher than expected stellar activity.

Now, Jonay González Hernández at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics and his colleagues say they have found a new Barnard’s star b, which is around 40 per cent as massive as Earth.

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°C (257°F).