Astronomers have discovered a frozen with a mass over three times that of the Earth, orbiting the closest solitary star to the

The potentially rocky planet, known as Barnard's star b, is a 'super-Earth' and orbits around its host star once every 233 days, said researchers from Queen in the UK. But, because Barnard's Star is so dim, the potential planet lies right around the system's "snow line" — the region where volatile materials such as water can condense into solid ices. Because Barnard's Star is so dim, its "habitable zone" — the range of distances where liquid water may be possible on a world's surface — lies extremely close-in. Despite being relatively close to its parent star, the planet receives less than 2 per cent of the energy Earth gets from the Sun, and the team estimates it has a surface temperature of -170 degrees Celsius - far too cold to support life as we know it. The Sun's closest neighbours

Image copyright IEEC/Science-Wave - Guillem Ramisa

Dr Anglada Escudé, from Queen Mary University of London, added: "The closest analogue we may have in the Solar System might be the moon of Saturn called Titan, which also has a very thick atmosphere and is made of hydrocarbons. Barnard's star b is the second closest known exoplanet to our The closest lies just over four light-years from

That exoplanet, called Proxima b, orbits around the red dwarf star

The researchers used the radial velocity method during the observations that led to the discovery of Barnard's star b. It's the first time the radial velocity technique has been used to detect a planet this small so far away from its host star.
Astronomers announce, through the journal Nature, the discovery of Barnard's Star b, a Super-Earth exoplanet orbiting Barnard's Star, the fourth-nearest-known individual star to the Sun.