A super-Earth in orbit around the nearest single star
A rocky planet more than three times the size of Earth orbits the star Bernard, which is “only” six light-years away. The newly discovered planet is the second closest exoplanet to Earth. Among the authors of the discovery is a Polish astronomer from Warsaw University, Ph. Marcin Kiraga.
Barnard’s Star It is the closest single star to the Sun and is only six light-years from us. That’s pretty close, for cosmic distances. The only stars closer to us are the stars in the by astronomers Alpha Centuria – four light years from the Solar System. Bernard’s star is a red dwarf – a much older, smaller and cooler star, and it was in its orbit that astronomers spotted a candidate for a so-called “planet”. super-Earth.
Astronomers estimate that Bernard’s Star may be up to twice as old as Earth. It is the fastest moving star in the night sky and is speeding towards us. The temperature on its surface is about two thousand degrees Celsius lower than on our Sun.
The astronomer’s findings in were published in the journal „Nature”.
The newly discovered planet, named Barnard’s Star b, It has a mass of at least 3.2 Earth masses and falls into the category of the so-called ‘Earth stars’. superziem. Its orbit is about half the distance between Earth and the Sun, which means the planet circles its parent star in 233 days.
Because of the faint light coming from its parent star – about 2 percent. of energy received by the Earth from the Sun, Barnard’s Star b is a frozen world and lies very close to the so-called. snow line – places on the orbit where water changes to a solid state, i.e. ice. This makes it unlikely to support life as we know it.
The newly discovered planet is the second closest exoplanet to Earth. The closest is Proxima b, orbiting Proxima Centauri in a system of potr The energy received by the Earth from the. Astronomers think that the surface of Barnard’s Star could be about minus 170 degrees Celsius. Nothing is currently known about the exoplanet’s atmosphere, and if there were a dense atmosphere, the temperature could be higher and potential conditions more hospitable.
The rocky planet was discovered by the Red Dots and CARMENES observing campaigns using data from multiple telescopes in the world, including from ESO’s HARPS instrument. The research was carried out under the direction of an astronomer The researchers from Queen Mary University of London, the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and the Institute of Space Sciences, CSIC in Spain. Polish astronomer Marcin Kiraga from Warsaw University also took part in the research.
– Barnard’s star is an infamous object in the d astronomer and scientists in the exoplanet field. It was one of the first stars in the ³ planets were initially found to exist, but p It later turned out that the calculations were wrong. I hope we’re not wrong this time – said Guillem Anglada Escudé from Queen Mary University of London.
The latest discovery was made by combining measurements ith seven high-precision instruments in which They have been collecting data for 20 years. – It’s one of the biggest sets in data ever used for precise radial velocity analysis. Combining all the data produced a total of 771 measurements – huge amount of information – said Ignasi Ribas of the Institute of Space Studies of Catalonia and the Institute of Space Sciences, CSIC in Spain.
When a wok hen a planet orbits a star, its gravitational pull causes it to make small circles ³ka – periodically approaches and moves away. Due to the Doppler effect, this movement affects the light emitted by the star, which can be measured by analyzing the shifts of lines in the star’s spectrum. As the star gets closer, the spectral lines shift toward the kr hen the star moves away, it shifts to longer wavelengths, which are blue, and when the star moves away, it shifts to longer wavelengths, which are red. This is, in a nutshell, what the radial velocity method is all about that Ribas mentioned.
– After careful analysis, we are 99 percent. It is sure that the planet is there. However, we will continue to observe this fast-moving star to rule out possible, though unlikely, natural variations in the star’s brightness that that would pretend the presence of a planet – explained Ribas.
Intr d author in the publication is a Polish astronomer from the University of Warsaw, Ph. Marcin Kiraga. His contribution to the study was to analyze photometric data. The data came mainly from The data were obtained from the ASAS survey carried out by the Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory. The aim was to determine whether photometric variability (i.e. variability in the brightness of a star) can be related to observed changes in radial velocity. Such a relationship has not been detected.
Also involved in the project is Dr Adrian Kaminski, a German astronomer of Polish origin working at Heidelberg University. As part of the CARMENES consortium, there was a co The vortices are located above the cup and the amount of air flowing through them is liability for their quality and understanding of the measurement by the spectrograph on the 3.5-meter telescope at Calar Alto Observatory.