“Barnard b” – A New Cosmic Neighbor near Earth

Astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s star, located just six light years away from Earth. It is one of the closest planets to its star, with a year lasting only three Earth days, and surface temperatures reaching 125 degrees Celsius.

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This discovery, published Tuesday in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, was made after five years of observation using the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile’s Atacama Desert.

The team of astronomers from the European Southern Observatory (ESO) was searching for signals that could indicate the presence of exoplanets within the “habitable zone” of Barnard’s star, which is the region where liquid water could exist on a planet’s surface, a condition essential for life.

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However, these conditions do not apply to “Barnard b,” the name given to this newly discovered exoplanet. This planet orbits twenty times closer to its star than the distance between Mercury and Earth’s Sun. A year on “Barnard b” lasts 3.15 days, and its surface temperature is approximately 125 degrees Celsius.

In a statement from the European Southern Observatory, Jonay González Hernández, a researcher at the Canary Islands Institute of Astrophysics (Spain) and lead author of the study, explained that “Barnard b” is one of the smallest known exoplanets in terms of mass, and one of the few with a mass less than that of Earth. However, this planet is very close to its host star and does not lie within the habitable zone.

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He added: “Although the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it remains extremely hot, making it impossible for liquid water to exist on the surface.”