Frozen super-Earth discovered six light-years away

CNN ^ | November 14, 2018 | Ashley Strickland,

[BenLurkin]

The red dwarf star itself emits only about 0.4% of our sun's radiance, so the planet receives about 2% of the intensity that Earth receives from its sun. This is because Barnard's star is in the class of M dwarf stars, cooler and less massive than our sun. It's also an old star that predates our own solar system.

The planet is about the same orbital distance from its star as Mercury is from our sun, making a full pass around the star every 233 days. This places it in the "snow line" of the star, where it's cold enough for water to freeze into solid ice. This region in a planetary system is where the building blocks of planets are thought to form, collecting material to become cores. As they migrate closer to their host stars, gathering more material, they become planets.

It's the first time a planet this small and distant from its star has been detected using the radial velocity technique, which Butler helped pioneer. This method is sensitive to the mass of the exoplanet and measures changes in the host star's velocity. Instruments can be used to detect tiny wobbles in the star's orbit that are caused by the planet's gravity.

In the 1930s, Dutch-American astronomer Peter van de Kamp began a quest to study Barnard's star that lasted for most of his 93 years. His claims of how planets could fit in orbit around the star were refuted...

[crusher2013]

Hope you brought enough fuel for mid course corrections.

[treetopsandroofs]

I do like the idea of shotgunning sensor cards out there, but they’re still going to have to achieve greater speed.

[treetopsandroofs]

“I do like the idea of shotgunning sensor cards out there, but they’re still going to have to achieve greater speed.”

Hmm, perhaps a carbon nanotube multi-charge cannon.

[metmom]

Who needs to go six light years?

I just have to look out the kitchen window.

[Oscar in Batangas]

hey algore:

See what happens when you mess around with global warming?
Now, send back those $100’s millions you filched.

...and the Nobel prize too while you’re at it.

[TheNext]

Darn. My ancestor relatives used to live on that dying planet. I told them that global cooling will kill them off.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks fmdj. I'd like 'em to find one with a year-round climate more like San Luis Opisbo.

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[Wuli]

There is NOTHING in the data presented that warrants the title of the article referring to the planet as a “Frozen ‘Super Earth’ “.

One mere point of data, that of a planet being in a zone, relative to the distance from a solar system’s star, which hints that water - if it is even present - would be frozen on a that planet, is NOT justification to even call the planet “Earth like” much less a “Frozen Super Earth”.

Being truly Earth like requires numerous points of data, not one, and not even a handful; but many.

These titles only prove how UNSCIENTIFIC are so many so-called “science” publications.

[SunkenCiv]

• Barnard's Star - Wikipedia
• Peter van de Kamp - Wikipedia

[tet68]

If it still has a magnetic field, molten core and some atmosphere it is possible, just a lot of hard work.

Heck, all it would take are enough SUVs.
It’ll warm right up. /s

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists Are ‘99 Percent’ Sure There’s a Huge Exoplanet Very Close to Our Solar System
By Brandon Specktor, Senior Writer | November 14, 2018 01:46pm ET
https://www.livescience.com/64089-new-super-earth-discovered-at-closest-star.html