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a researcher at Spain’s Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. “Even if the star is about 2,500C cooler than our Sun, it is too hot there to maintain liquid water on the surface,” said Gonzalez Hernandez, the lead author of the new study in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal.

Barnard’s Star is located in the constellation Ophiuchus. After the three stars in the Alpha Centauri system, 4.2 light years away, it is the closest to our Sun. It is also a target for exoplanet hunters because it orbits a red dwarf star. Red dwarfs are significantly colder than other stars. Astronomers spot exoplanets when they flash in front of their star, so the closer they orbit, the more chances there are to observe them.

The researchers also found evidence of three other potential exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s Star but need more observations to confirm their findings. The discovery, along with that of two exoplanets orbiting the nearby star Proxima Centauri, “shows that our cosmic backyard is full of low-mass planets”” said study co-author Alejandro Suarez Mascareno. Since the 1990s, more than 5,700 planets have been discovered outside our Solar System. But few have been in the Goldilocks zone. — AFP