Scientists are penetrating deeper and deeper into space, discovering not even new stars, but new planets. Most recently, the planetary system of the nearest star, Proxima Centauri, was described. And now, now there is new information. Villanova University astrophysicist Edward Guinan spoke at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Union in Seattle, according to the dailymail.
Barnard.
Twenty years of continuous observations from various European telescopes (the main of which was the telescope of the Kolar Alto Observatory in Spain) have yielded results.
Scientists studied the nearby (only 6 light years from the Sun) Barnard's Star.
The red dwarf is invisible to the naked eye, its luminosity is much weaker than the solar one. The star's low internal temperature and, accordingly, the slow reaction rate give it an incredibly long life. This is an old star, it is already about 10 billion years old. The mass of this dim star, class M4, is 17% of the solar mass.
Barnard's Star was discovered in 1916 and astronomers have been looking for its planetary system since the 60s of the twentieth century. They were able to find her quite recently.
The planet was named "Barnard's Star b". Its characteristics are well calculated. The distance to the star is 0.4 astronomical units, that is, closer than the Earth to the Sun, the mass is about three Earth's, it makes a complete revolution around its star in 233 days.
Although the planet is located closer to its "Sun", it receives much less heat than the Earth - only 2% of the Earth's, so the average temperature on Barnard's surface b is minus 1500C.
Promotional video:
However, astrophysicists suggest that the existence of life on the planet is quite likely. With about the same probability as on Jupiter's moon Europa, whose surface is entirely made of ice.
It is possible that liquid water exists on the planet under a kilometer-long layer of ice, especially in places of geothermal activity - the release of underground heat to the surface.
The presence of such a planet in the Red Dwarf suggests that there are many planets in the Universe suitable for life.