Astronomers Discover An Earth-Like Planet Orbiting Closest Star To Our Sun
Whether it be an alien planet orbiting the K-type star Epsilon Indi A, which is around the same age as Earth’s Sun, or a promising super-Earth that resembles a giant eyeball, astronomers and scientists are always on the lookout for another planet that might host life. It was during a search for a hypothesized earth-like planet that a group astronomers stumbled upon another exoplanet, known as Barnard b.
The discovery was made using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), and is the subject of a research paper published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Jonay Gonzalez Hernandez, lead author of the paper, noted that the group was confident that they could find something, as they searched the habitable zone of Barnard’s star. Barnard’s star is the second-closest stellar system, after Alpha Centauri’s three-star group, and the closest individual star to Earth.
The discovery of the exoplanet was made while the astronomers were searching for a hypothesized planet three times the mass of Earth orbiting the same star. While that planet has yet to be confirmed, the group believes there may be three more exoplanets orbiting further out from the star.
Unfortunately, however, Barnard b is too close to its star to be habitable. “Barnard is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known and one of the few known with a mass less than that of Earth. But the planet is too close to the host star, closer than the habitable zone,” explained Gonzalez Hernandez. “Even if the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the surface.”
Co-author of the study, Alejandro Suarez Mascareno, added, “But the discovery of this planet along with other previous discoveries such as Proxima b and d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.”
Astronomers associated with the discovery of Barnard b are excited at what is to come. ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, could transform the field of exoplanet research. ELT’s instruments will allow researchers to to detect more small, rocky planets in the temperate zone around nearby stars, beyond the reach of what is currently available.
