Barnard's Star Archives

Atmosphere loss of Barnard’s Star planets, under various assumptions of planet masses, bulk densities, and initial atmospheric mass fraction. The mass range tested for a given planet is between its minimum mass (based on RV data; B25) and 2.5 times the minimum mass (see Section 2). The bulk densities 𝜌, used to calculate planet radius in the evolution models, span a liberal range: the Solar System rocky planets have densities between 3.93 g cm−3 (Mars) and 5.51 g cm−3 (Earth). No matter what assumptions are made, the planets are completely stripped of their atmospheres within 2 Gyr. The atmospheres survive longer if the planets are more massive, denser, farther from the star, and begin with a larger atmospheric mass fraction. — astro-ph.EP

The Barnard’s Star Planetary System: Stability, Composition, and Evolution of Four Sub-Earth Exoplanets

by Keith CowingJune 24, 2026June 24, 2026

Barnard’s Star is the nearest single star to the Sun (1.8 pc), and hosts four recently-discovered planets.

The average total power of individual airport radar systems, averaged over one-hour intervals as seen from Barnard’s Star. -- Royal Astronomical Society

Astrobiology (general), Barnard's Star, Intelligence & Language, Interstellar, Press Release, Proxima Centauri, SETI & Technosignatures

How Airports Could Help Aliens Spot Earth

by Keith CowingJuly 9, 2025July 9, 2025

Radar systems used by civilian airports and military operations are inadvertently revealing our existence to potential advanced alien civilisations, new research shows.

This plot shows the current sensitivity of detecting planets around Barnard's Star using the MAROON-X Red channel and ESPRESSO data. -- The Astrophysical Journal Letters

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Four Planets Discovered Around Barnard’s Star

by Keith CowingMay 27, 2025May 27, 2025

Astronomers confirm the existence of small, hot and likely rocky planets by observing the subtle gravitational wobbles of the star they orbit.

This map shows the geographic distribution of the mobile towers of planet Earth, represented by red dots. The map contains more than 30 million individual data points, most of which overlap at this resolution. -- astro-ph.EP

Alpha Centauri, Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Intelligence & Language, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

Simulation Of The Earth’s Radio Leakage From Mobile Towers As Seen From Selected Nearby Stellar Systems

by Keith CowingMay 26, 2025May 26, 2025

Mobile communication towers represent a relatively new but growing contributor to the total radio leakage associated with planet Earth.

This plot shows the current sensitivity of detecting planets around Barnard’s Star using the MAROON-X Red channel and ESPRESSO data. -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release, Stellar Cartography

Four Sub-Earth Planets Orbiting Barnard’s Star From MAROON-X And ESPRESSO

by Keith CowingMarch 17, 2025March 17, 2025

Barnard’s Star is an old, single M dwarf star that comprises the second-closest extrasolar system. It has a long history of claimed planet detections from both radial velocities and astrometry.

Artist's impression of the view from one of the planets orbiting Barnard's Star. [International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor/J. Pollard; CC BY 4.0]

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

Barnard’s Star Hosts Four Tiny Planets

by Keith CowingMarch 13, 2025March 13, 2025

Just 6 light-years away, Barnard’s Star is a well-studied 10-billion-year-old M dwarf with a mass of 0.16 solar mass. Finding exoplanets around Barnard’s Star has been something of a white […]

ESPRESSO RV measurements (right) and GLS periodograms (left) of GJ 699 after subtracting the median of each dataset before (E18) and after (E19) the intervention in June 2019. Also shown are RV measurements from the ESPRESSO Data Reduction Software (DRS; top), from the S-BART template matching (TM) code (middle), and from the line-by-line LBL code (bottom).-- astro-ph.EP

Alpha Centauri, Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

A Sub-Earth-mass Planet Orbiting Barnard’s Star

by Keith CowingOctober 4, 2024

Barnard’s star is a primary target within the ESPRESSO guaranteed time observations (GTO) as it is the second closest neighbour to our Sun after the α Centauri stellar system.

This artist’s impression shows Barnard b, a sub-Earth-mass planet that was discovered orbiting Barnard’s star. Its signal was detected with the ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), and astronomers were able to confirm it with data from other instruments. An earlier promising detection in 2018 around the same star could not be confirmed by these data. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus but is too hot to support liquid water, a year lasts just over three Earth days.Credit:ESO/M. Kornmesser

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Press Release

A Sub-Earth Mass Planet Has Been Discovered Orbiting Barnard’s Star

by Keith CowingOctober 1, 2024October 1, 2024

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to our Sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, […]

Comparison between the observed data (red) and the model (blue) with Teff , log g , and metallicity of 3200 K, 5.0 dex and −0.5 dex, respectively. The Top panel shows some alpha elements (e.g., Ti I and Mg I) as well as several isolated and blended Fe I lines. The middle panel shows the Na I doublet frequently used in several studies as metallicity indicators of M dwarfs. The bottom panel shows numerous absorption features of the CO band head starting around 2.29 µm (red dashed lines). -- astro-ph.EP

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, Habitable Zones, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Status Report

Comprehensive High-resolution Chemical Spectroscopy of Barnard’s Star with SPIRou

by Keith CowingOctober 19, 2023October 1, 2024

Determination of fundamental parameters of stars impacts all fields of astrophysics, from galaxy evolution to constraining the internal structure of exoplanets.

Histograms of hits and events for XX as functions of frequency, drift rate and S/N. Frequency bands of catalogued interference sources are displayed on the frequency panel. The blue bars show the distributions of the hits detected by all 19 beams. The orange bars show the distributions of the events detected by Beam 1. -- astro-ph.SR

Astronomy & Telescopes, Barnard's Star, SETI & Technosignatures, Status Report

The Most Sensitive SETI Observations Toward Barnard’s Star With FAST

by Keith CowingSeptember 28, 2023October 1, 2024

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been mainly focused on nearby stars and their planets in recent years. Barnard’s star is the second closest star system to the sun and […]