Free Astronomy Magazine November-December 2024

7 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2024 ASTRO PUBLISHING strument designed to measure the wobble of a star caused by the grav- itational pull of one or more orbit- ing planets. The results obtained from these observations were con- firmed by data from other instru- ments also specialised in exoplanet hunting: HARPS at ESO’s La Silla Ob- servatory, HARPS-N and CARMENES. The new data do not, however, sup- port the existence of the exoplanet reported in 2018. In addition to the confirmed planet, the international team also found hints of three more exoplanet can- didates orbiting the same star. These candidates, however, will re- quire additional observations with ESPRESSO to be confirmed. “We now need to continue observ- ing this star to confirm the other candidate signals,” says Alejandro Suárez Mascareño, a researcher also at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Ca- narias and co-author of the study. “But the discovery of this planet, along with other previous discover- ies such as Proxima b and d, shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets.” ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), currently under construction, is set to transform the field of exo- planet research. The ELT’s ANDES in- strument will allow researchers to detect more of these small, rocky planets in the temperate zone around nearby stars, beyond the reach of current telescopes, and en- able them to study the composition of their atmospheres. G raphic representation of the rela- tive distances between the near- est stars and the Sun. Barnard’s star is the second closest star system to the Sun, and the nearest single star to us. [IEEC/Science-Wave – Guillem Ramisa] than the habitable zone,” explains González Hernández. “Even if the star is about 2500 degrees cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the sur- face.” For their observations, the team used ESPRESSO, a highly precise in- !