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‘Super-Earth’ found
Why is it in news?
- Astronomers have discovered a frozen planet with a mass over three times that of the Earth orbiting the closest solitary star to the Sun.
- The potentially rocky planet known as Barnard’s star b, is a ‘super-Earth’ and orbits around its host star once every 233 days
- The findings, show the planet lies at a distant region from the star known as the ‘snow line’
- This is well beyond the habitable zone in which liquid water, and possibly life, could exist.
- The planet’s surface temperature is estimated to be around -170°C, they said.
- However, if the planet has a substantial atmosphere the temperature could be higher and conditions potentially more hospitable
‘Infamous object’
- Barnard’s star is an infamous object among astronomers and exoplanet scientists.
- As it was one of the first stars where planets were initially claimed but later proven to be incorrect.
- At nearly six light-years away Barnard’s star is the next closest star to the Sun after the Alpha Centauri triple system.
- It is a type of faint, low-mass star called a red dwarf.
- Red dwarfs are considered to be the best places to look for exoplanet candidates, which are planets outside our solar system.
- Barnard’s star b is the second closest known exoplanet to our Sun.
- The closest lies just over four light-years from Earth.
- That exoplanet, Proxima b, orbits around the red dwarf Proxima Centauri.
- The researchers used the radial velocity method during the observations that led to the discovery of Barnard’s star b.
- This technique detects wobbles in a star which are likely to be caused by the gravitational pull of an orbiting planet.
- These wobbles affect the light coming from the star.
Source
The Hindu