MerahPutih.com – Astronomers have discovered a planet orbiting the star closest to Earth.
The single star, known as Barnard, is a red dwarf about 80% smaller than the Sun. Then, it is located about six light years from the solar system.
The newly discovered planet, nicknamed Barnard b, has half the mass of Venus and a year lasts more than three Earth days.
Astronomers publish their findings in journals Astronomy & Astrophysics. Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT ESO), researchers also estimate that there may be three exoplanet another orbiting the star.
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However, researchers believe there is no life on Barnard b, because it is 20 times closer to Barnard’s star than Mercury is to the Sun. So, the planet has a very hot surface temperature, namely 125 degrees Celsius.
Although Barnard’s star is the only solo star closest to Earth, it is not the closest exoplanet. The closest star system to Earth is the triple star group Alpha Centauri, which hosts the planet Proxima Centauri b and is approximately four light years away.
Researchers were very enthusiastic when they discovered this planet, because until now there had been no planet orbiting Barnard’s star. Seeing its proximity to Earth, this planet has become the main target in the search for Earth-like exoplanets.
Barnard b was discovered as a result of observations carried out over five years using a VLT located in Chile.
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Alpha Centauri is the closest star system to Earth. Photo: Doc/ESO
Through the use of a high-precision instrument called ESPRESSO (Echelle Spectrograph for Rocky Exoplanet and Stable Spectroscopic Observations), the team measured the wobble of a star caused by the gravitational pull of another orbiting planet to find Barnard b.
Then, when the researchers thought they had found something, they confirmed their findings using data from the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher (HARPS) that hunts for exoplanets.
The researchers looked for signals of a possible exoplanet in the habitable or temperate zone of Barnard’s star, which is the range where liquid water could exist on the surface of such a planet.
Red dwarfs like Barnard’s star are frequent targets of astronomers, because low-mass, rocky planets are easier to detect there than around larger Sun-like stars.
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The journal’s lead author, Dr Jonay Gonzalez Hernandez, said that although it took a long time, they were always confident that they could find something.
“Barnard b is one of the lowest mass exoplanets known and one of the few exoplanets known to have a mass smaller than Earth. However, this planet is too close to its parent star, closer than the habitable zone,” he said, quoted from Metro UK.
“Even if the star’s temperature were about 2,500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it would be too hot to maintain liquid water on its surface.”
This exciting finding offers a host of untapped possibilities in the search for life beyond Earth. (sof)
