[REVISION HISTORY]
Barnard’s Star exoplanets deemed dry and lifeless
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2026-07-29 04:19 UTC → 2026-08-24 11:38 UTC ·
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A Cambridge research team has refined the characterisation of the four small planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, the Sun’s nearest neighbour after Alpha Centauri. Discovered in 2025, the these rocky worlds are larger than Mars but smaller than Earth and Venus. Venus, representing a size range not found in our own solar system. Spectroscopy of the host star shows an unusually high magnesium‑to‑silicon ratio, leading magnesium-to-silicon ratio. Lead author Xander Byrne and the authors to infer a mantle research team suggest this high magnesium abundance likely produced mantles dominated by periclase (magnesium oxide), oxide). Unlike Earth’s olivine, periclase is ineffective at retaining water, rendering the planets exceptionally dry. The planets are locked in a mineral 9:12:16 orbital resonance that does not retain water. Their stabilises their configuration. However, their tight, tidally‑locked orbits – tidally-locked orbits—with the outermost planet lies lying ten times nearer to its star than Mercury does to the Sun – expose Sun—expose the bodies to intense radiation and a radiation. Combined with weak gravity, these factors likely caused the rapid loss of any primitive atmosphere, estimated to have occurred atmosphere within about approximately two billion years, far earlier than the system’s ten‑billion‑year ten-billion-year age. The planets are locked Published in a 9 : 12 : 16 orbital resonance that stabilises the configuration. The study, published in *Monthly Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society*, concludes Society, the planets study concludes these radiation-burnt worlds are extremely dry, radiation‑burnt and unlikely to support carbon‑based life, and suggests they will serve as carbon-based life. While the findings provide benchmarks for forthcoming James Webb and extremely large‑telescope observations. large-telescope observations, researchers note that the physical challenges of interstellar travel remain immense, as reaching the system would currently require tens of thousands of years.
Versions
- 2026-08-24 11:38 UTC Barnard’s Star exoplanets deemed dry and lifeless
- 2026-07-29 04:19 UTC Barnard’s Star exoplanets deemed dry and lifeless
- 2026-07-26 14:54 UTC Barnard's Star exoplanet habitability assessment
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