Exoplanet discovered around neighbouring star
Astronomers have discovered a planet around one of the closest stars to our Sun.
Nearby planets like this are likely to be prime targets in the search for signatures of life, using the next generation of telescopes.
The planet's mass is thought to be more than three times that of our own, placing it in a category of world know as "super-Earths".
It orbits Barnard's star, which sits "just" six light-years away.
Writing in the journal Nature [DOI: 10.1038/s41586-018-0677-y] [DX], Guillem Anglada Escudé and colleagues say this newly discovered world has a mass 3.2 times bigger than the Earth's.
Also at phys.org.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @10:40PM (2 children)
Better look quick, the Vogons are about to take it out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 14 2018, @11:20PM (1 child)
We have a lock on the location of the plans for the hyperspace byp[ass. Maybe this is Vogon HQ?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 15 2018, @11:07AM
The plans are at the local planning department on Alpha Centauri. Barnard's star is just the nearest hyperspace junction.