Astronomers have identified four exoplanets orbiting Barnards Star, a red dwarf star just 6 light-years away from Earth.
No, really, this time its for real!
He and his colleagues used a planet-hunting instrument mounted on the Gemini North telescope called MAROON-X.
An illustration of one of Barnard’s Star’s four exoplanets.© Illustration by International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/R. Proctor/J. Pollard
We observed at different times of night on different days.
Theyre in Chile; were in Hawaii.
That gives us a lot of assurance that these arent phantoms in the data.
The four exoplanets orbit Barnards Star so closely that their years last only a few Earth days.
They are probably rocky and, given their proximity to the star, uninhabitable.
This new record paves the way for more precise exoplanet hunting than ever before.
Because water is a prerequisite for lifeand maybe not just our own.
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