Astronomers detect exoplanet half as massive as the Earth around second closest star system
Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have detected evidence of an exoplanet about half as massive as the Earth orbiting Barnard’s Star, only six light years away and the second closest star system.
Barnard’s Star is a prime target in the search for exoplanets due to its proximity and its status as a red dwarf, a common type of star where low-mass planets are often found. Despite a promising signal detected in 2018, no planet had been definitively confirmed around it until now. The ESPRESSO spectrograph [on VLT] … enabled the astronomers to detect Barnard b, a subterrestrial planet that orbits the star in 3.15 days. The team also identified signals indicating the possible presence of three other candidate exoplanets, which have yet to be confirmed.
Back in the 1960s using the less precise instruments of the time, astronomers thought they had detected an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s Star. That detection however proved false. The detection is real, however, and adds weight to the growing evidence that planets can form around red dwarf stars, the most common stars in the universe with the longest lifespan, predicted to be many tens of billions of years. Having planets around such stars significantly increases the chances of habitable planets, even if those planets do not harbor life of its own.
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Using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile, astronomers have detected evidence of an exoplanet about half as massive as the Earth orbiting Barnard’s Star, only six light years away and the second closest star system.
Barnard’s Star is a prime target in the search for exoplanets due to its proximity and its status as a red dwarf, a common type of star where low-mass planets are often found. Despite a promising signal detected in 2018, no planet had been definitively confirmed around it until now. The ESPRESSO spectrograph [on VLT] … enabled the astronomers to detect Barnard b, a subterrestrial planet that orbits the star in 3.15 days. The team also identified signals indicating the possible presence of three other candidate exoplanets, which have yet to be confirmed.
Back in the 1960s using the less precise instruments of the time, astronomers thought they had detected an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s Star. That detection however proved false. The detection is real, however, and adds weight to the growing evidence that planets can form around red dwarf stars, the most common stars in the universe with the longest lifespan, predicted to be many tens of billions of years. Having planets around such stars significantly increases the chances of habitable planets, even if those planets do not harbor life of its own.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
I once heard, but haven’t seen the math confirmed, that the techniques we are currently using to detect exoplanets are not sufficiently high resolution to detect our own solar system if we were observing from 20 light years or so away. We’re mostly finding planets that orbit very close to their stars with periods measured in days, because even something like Jupiter doesn’t perturb the sun enough for our current techniques to notice, it’s simply too far out and thus moving slowly enough that we’d have to observe a star very precisely for decades to notice.
Mr Eastman,
HD 118203c found this year.
It is further than Jupiter from its star, at 6.2 AU, taking over 13.9 years to orbit.
Estimated radius 1.11 compared to Jupiter, but much higher density, with a mass estimated at 11.1 Jupiters.
Found using the radial velocity method (Doppler shift).
The star is in the Ursa Major constellation, approximately 300 LY distant. G0 V star, so a little hotter than Sol, and in the main sequence. Not visible to the naked eye.
The first confirmed exoplanet was was announced 29 years ago, next week.
In my mind, that would explain why most discoveries are shorter orbital periods. It can take years of data to find these things.
The smallesr exoplanet found to dat is 2x the size if the Moon, orbiting a pulsar 2300 LY away.
Different methods sensitive to different things.
Direct observation: far far orbiting super jovian planets like fomalhaut b
Gravitational interactions: close orbiting super jovian
Transit method: Close orbiting smaller planets
Frustratingly, earth is sort of in between the range of all these methods. Might be able to pick up with transit method, but would require a long observation time, and the ecliptic plane to just happen to lie on line of sight