Astronomers have found not one, not two, but four tiny planets crammed into orbit around Barnard’s Star. This unassuming red dwarf lurks just six light-years away, making it the second-closest star system to Earth. Turns out, it’s been hoarding worlds right under our noses.
Each of these planets is a lightweight, only about 20–30% the mass of Earth. They’re on blisteringly fast orbits—sprinting around their star in mere days. Translation: they’re probably way too hot for life, unless it thrives on volcanic hellscapes.
“This is a big deal,” said Ritvik Basant, a Ph.D. student at the University of Chicago and lead author on the study. “Barnard’s Star is practically next door, and yet we know almost nothing about it.” That’s changing, thanks to new instruments that make their predecessors look like blurry binoculars.
The discovery backs up a 2023 study that had spotted one planet and suspected there might be more. Now, with fresh data from the Gemini Observatory and a few other scientific heavyweights, the planet count has jumped to four.
Star Wobbles & Cosmic Hiding Spots
Barnard’s Star has been under surveillance for over a century. First charted in 1916 by E. E. Barnard at Yerkes Observatory, it’s the closest single-star system to us. (Proxima Centauri, the actual nearest, is a chaotic three-star circus.)
This particular star is an M dwarf—a type that dominates the universe in sheer numbers. If we want to know what kinds of planets fill the cosmos, these stars hold the answers. But there’s a problem: their planets are tiny, dim, and hopelessly outshined by their parent stars.
Instead of trying to directly spot these miniature worlds, astronomers went for a sneakier approach. Enter MAROON-X, an ultra-precise instrument designed by University of Chicago professor Jacob Bean. It’s installed on the Gemini Telescope in Hawaii, and its job is to detect the minuscule gravitational tugs that planets exert on their stars.
Think of it like watching a flag ripple to infer wind direction. MAROON-X doesn’t see the planets—it sees the way they make Barnard’s Star wobble ever so slightly. By measuring shifts in starlight color, it can deduce the number and mass of the planets responsible for the stellar dance.
Three Years, 112 Nights, and a Planetary Coup
Bean, Basant, and their team spent three years gathering data over 112 nights, calibrating and analyzing every detail. What they found: clear, undeniable wobbles pointing to three planets.
But they didn’t stop there. When they combined their results with earlier observations, a fourth planet emerged from the noise. A tiny, distant world that almost slipped past unnoticed.
Barnard’s Star, once thought to be a lonely outpost, is actually a bustling little planetary system. No, these planets won’t be hosting any intergalactic vacations—but they do prove that small rocky worlds are everywhere, even in our immediate stellar neighborhood.
Five Fast Facts
- Barnard’s Star moves across the sky faster than any other known star, earning it the nickname “The Runaway Star.”
- M dwarf stars like Barnard’s are so common that they make up about 70% of the stars in the Milky Way.
- Despite being close, Barnard’s Star is too faint to see with the naked eye.
- MAROON-X is so precise that it can detect a velocity change in a star as small as 30 cm per second—about the speed of a slow-walking turtle.
- Early 20th-century astronomers thought Barnard’s Star had a giant planet, but later data proved them wrong—until now.
