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The discovery of a new planet in the orbit of one of the most studied stars by astronomers, Barnard, put an end to half a century of speculation.
For decades, scientists have been trying to detect a planet revolving around it. this low-gloss red dwarf, located only 6 light-years from our solar system .
Barnard is the isolated star closest to us.
And finally they found the planet.
It is thought that the mbad of this planet is up to three times greater than that of the Earth, which is why it is included in the category known worldwide as "supertierra ".
Are stars as close as they are objective of the most modern telescopes, because its proximity facilitates the search for vestiges of their life
The discovery was carried out by a team of Spanish researchers of the Institute Space Science of the Conseil supérieur de la recherche. Scientific Studies of Spain and Queen Mary University of London and published this week in the journal Nature .
Too cold to house life
One of the main makers of the research, Dr. Anglada Escudé, said that it was "probably a planet primarily rocky with a heavy atmosphere Probably very rich in volatile substances such as water, hydrogen, carbon dioxide . Many of them are frozen on the surface. "
The astronomer of Queen Mary University in London also emphasized the authenticity of the discovery.
"The closest badogue that we can have in the solar system could be ] The moon of Saturn called Titan, which also has a very thick atmosphere and is made up of the same. hydrocarbons, with lakes and showers formed of methane. "
This super-land is as far from its star as Mercury C is the second closest exoplanet to Earth after Proxima Centauri b, whose discovery was made in 2016.
The planet gravitates around a boundary known as the "snow line" beyond the habitable zone where water can still be found liquid to the surface.
By far, and according to their observations, scientists think that the temperatures on the surface of the planet are -150ºC. but an atmosphere could warm it up, bringing together the necessary conditions to shelter life.
An innovative detection method
Detecting it has not been easy, in fact, since 1960, astrophysicists are trying to find a planet in the orbit of the Barnard star, which bears the name of the astronomer who discovered it in 1916, the American Edward Emerson Barnard.
To do this, the researchers used a radial velocity method to detect oscillations in a star caused by the gravitational attraction of a planet in orbit.
These oscillations also affect the light that comes from the star and as the celestial body moves towards the Earth, its light appears displaced towards the blue part of the spectrum. . When she moves away, she appears moved to the red.
"This planet is particularly complicated because its orbital period (the time it takes to complete a full orbit of the star around which it rotates) is 233 days.In a year, you only see one part of the cycle and you have to cover it for many years to make sure that it is something that repeats itself, "said Dr. Anglada Escudé at the BBC.
The team re-examined the two-file data. astronomical studies carried out during 20 years and addition of new observations obtained with the help of the Cármenes de Almería spectrometer (Spain), the Eso / Harps instrument of Chile and the Harps-N instrument of the Canarias Islands, also in Spain
It is the first time that the technique of radial velocity is used to detect a planet as small and as distant from its host star, but it could become the most appropriate method. Detect other exoplanets.
In an independent article also published in Nature the astronomer Rodrigo Díaz of the Institute of Astronomy and Space Physics of Buenos Aires (Argentina) who did not participate in this study. , said the discovery "gives us a key element in the puzzle of the evolution and formation of planets".
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