"Scientists Spot Tantalizing New Super-Earth Around " Topic

….Nearby Star.

"Scientists have spotted strong evidence of a super-Earth orbiting the second-closest star system to the Sun, according to new research.

The evidence consists of a slight repeating change to the light from Barnard's star, a small star 5.9 light-years away. The data suggests the presence of a cold planet at least 3.2 times heavier than Earth, orbiting at a much farther distance than expected. But its relative closeness to Earth makes it an important world that scientists may soon be able to take a picture of directly.

"Detecting the near-most planets has intrinsic interest, as these are the planets that we can expect to directly characterize best within next few decades," the study's senior author Guillem Anglada-Escude, from Queen Mary University of London, told Gizmodo. "In this case, the moderately large angular separation should enable direct imaging soon."…."
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Amicalement
Armand

Ya nice….but it is a pretty small red dwarf Sun, so life on these planets would be doubtful. In fact Barnard's Star had a pretty massive flare that was observed in 1998. From the Wiki entry on Barnard's Star:

Stellar activity of this sort has created interest in using Barnard's Star as a proxy to understand similar stars. It is hoped that photometric studies of its X-ray and UV emissions will shed light on the large population of old M dwarfs in the galaxy. Such research has astrobiological implications: given that the habitable zones of M dwarfs are close to the star, any planets would be strongly influenced by solar flares, winds, and plasma ejection events.

Riedel, A. R.; Guinan, E. F.; DeWarf, L. E.; Engle, S. G.; McCook, G. P. (May 2005). "Barnard's Star as a Proxy for Old Disk dM Stars: Magnetic Activity, Light Variations, XUV Irradiances, and Planetary Habitable Zones". Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society. 37: 442.

Wouldn't want to be on the planet's surface when that happened.

(smile)

Amicalement
Armand