Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2024

4 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING Barnard’s Star has a sub-Earth mass planet U sing the European South- ern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), as- tronomers have discovered an exo- planet orbiting Barnard’s star, the closest single star to our Sun. On this newly discovered exoplanet, which has at least half the mass of Venus, a year lasts just over three Earth days. The team’s observations also hint at the existence of three more by ESO − Bárbara Ferreira T his 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. [ESO/M. Kornmesser] exoplanet candidates, in various or- bits around the star. Located just six light-years away, Barnard’s star is the second-closest stellar system — after Alpha Cen- tauri’s three-star group — and the