Barnard's Star
Barnard's Star | |
Stellar characteristics | |
---|---|
Constellation | Ophiuchus |
Right ascension (Epoch J2000) | 17h 57m 48.5s |
Declination (Epoch J2000) | +04° 41' 36" |
Spectral type | M4 Ve |
Distance from Sol | 5.98 ± 0.003 ly |
Other designations | Barnard's Runaway Star, BD+04°3561a, GCTP 4098.00, Gl 140-024, Gliese 699, HIP 87937, LFT 1385, LHS 57, LTT 15309, Munich 15040, Proxima Ophiuchi, V2500 Ophiuchi, Vyssotsky 799 |
Barnard's Star, also known occasionally as Barnard's Runaway Star, is a very low-mass red dwarf star approximately six light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ophiuchus (the Snake-holder). In 1916, astronomer E.E. Barnard measured its proper motion as 10.3 arcseconds per year, which remains the largest-known proper motion of any star relative to the Sun.
In the 1970s, Barnard's Star was the proposed destination for the British space exploration Project Daedalus, because it was then believed to have a planetary system.
Barnard's Star System
The Barnard system was given a cursory fly-by by the Trekkies in 2009. The first real survey of the star system was the Discovery-Challenger Expedition of late 2014, the first major interstellar mission by the Artemis Foundation. The expedition mapped three planets:
- New Alaska (Barnard I)
- New Oklahoma (Barnard II)
- New Texas (Barnard III)
New Texas and New Oklahoma are both gas giants in the Jupiter/Saturn style, both with extensive moon systems. New Alaska is a superterrestrial world, roughly three times as massive as Earth, and sits on the outer edge of Barnard's water band; the planet is covered in ice from pole to equator. Despite this, it appears that New Alaska has life, a cryogenic biosphere discovered in ice cores taken by Challenger similar to isolated ecosystems found under Earth's polar caps.
GCU Yuri Gagarin has since made a solo mission to Barnard's Star.