Astronomers announced on October 1 that they’ve found a rare exoplanet, smaller than Earth, orbiting one of the nearest stars to the sun. However, the planet is far too hot to support life.
The planet, named Barnard b, circles Barnard’s Star, which is about six light years away. Observations from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, collected over five years, revealed this discovery.
Scientists were searching for planets in the “Goldilocks zone,” where conditions are just right for liquid water, a key ingredient for life.
However, Barnard b is not in this zone. It’s 20 times closer to its star than Mercury is to our sun, and a year on the planet lasts only three Earth days. The planet’s surface temperature reaches 125°C.
Researcher Jonay Gonzalez Hernandez from Spain explained that while Barnard’s Star is cooler than our sun, it’s still too hot on the planet for water to exist.
Barnard’s Star, located in the constellation Ophiuchus, is one of the closest stars after the Alpha Centauri system and is a prime target for astronomers studying planets outside our solar system.
The astronomers also found signs of three more possible planets around Barnard’s Star, though they need further research to confirm this.
The discovery, along with planets found around Proxima Centauri, suggests our galactic neighborhood is full of small planets. Since the 1990s, scientists have found over 5,700 exoplanets, but few are in the habitable zone.
