“Artist’s illustration of exoplanets orbiting Barnard’s Star. Credit: International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld” (ScitechDaily, These Nearby Alien Planets Are Stranger – and More Hostile – Than Expected)
Barnard’s Star is a small red dwarf. Slightly larger than Jupiter. The size of Barnard’s Star is two times that of Jupiter. But its mass is 150 times bigger. The age of that star is about 10 billion years. Barnard’s Star has four planets. Those planets are sub-Earths. Mass between Venus and Mars. Those sub-Earths have weaker gravity. And Barnard’s Star's massive mass eruptions could reach their surface. If. Those planets have an atmosphere. They must have strong magnetic fields. That magnetic field should be as strong as. It drives those mass eruptions away from their surface and atmosphere. If those mass eruptions impact a planet’s atmosphere, they wipe it out into space immediately.
“Just under six light-years from Earth, Barnard’s Star hosts four small worlds unlike any planet in our own Solar System. The nearby star, second only to Alpha Centauri in proximity to the Sun, now has its most detailed planetary profile yet.”(ScitechDaily, These Nearby Alien Planets Are Stranger – and More Hostile – Than Expected)
“All four planets, discovered in 2025, are smaller than Earth and Venus but larger than Mars. No planet within that size range exists in the Solar System.”(ScitechDaily, These Nearby Alien Planets Are Stranger – and More Hostile – Than Expected)
There are discussions about whether those planets' mass is enough to cause the wobbling movement of Barnard’s Star. Or could there be some more massive object that hides somewhere near that star? Sometimes that wobbling movement is explained as a rocket effect from those mass eruptions from that red dwarf. But legend remains.
“Size comparison between Jupiter, Barnard's Star, and the Sun”. (Wikipedia, Barnard's Star)
"Barnard's Star has a mass of about 0.16 solar masses (M☉), and a radius about 0.2 times that of the Sun. Thus, although Barnard's Star has roughly 150 times the mass of Jupiter (MJ), its radius is only roughly twice as large, due to its much higher density. Its effective temperature is about 3,220 kelvin, and it has a luminosity of only 0.0034 solar luminosities. Barnard's Star is so faint that if it were at the same distance from Earth as the Sun is, it would appear only 100 times brighter than a full moon, comparable to the brightness of the Sun at 80 astronomical units." (Wikipedia, Barnard's Star)
"Barnard's Star has 10–32% of the solar metallicity. Metallicity is the proportion of stellar mass made up of elements heavier than helium and helps classify stars relative to the galactic population. Barnard's Star seems to be typical of the old, red dwarf population II stars, yet these are also generally metal-poor halo stars. While sub-solar, Barnard's Star's metallicity is higher than that of a halo star and is in keeping with the low end of the metal-rich disk star range; this, plus its high space motion, has led to the designation "intermediate population II star", between a halo and disk star. However, some recently published scientific papers have given much higher estimates for the metallicity of the star, very close to the Sun's level, between 75 and 125% of the solar metallicity." (Wikipedia, Barnard's Star)
They are more hostile than people thought. The superflares from that small red dwarf are impacting those planets. The age of that small star is about two times that of the Sun. But its small size makes it unstable. The planets must orbit it very close. And that means their surface is under a heavy particle bombardment. Radiation from Barnard’s Star is far on the red side of the electromagnetic spectrum. This means that Barnard’s Star transmits more IR radiation than the Sun.
Those planets, if they are in the habitable zone. They are under heavy radiation because their dayside is locked to that star. The fact is that. Life as we know it on those planets is impossible. The red dwarfs. They might have habitable planets. But Barnard’s Star is not one of those stars. There, lifeforms as a form. As we know. Are possible. Those planets. And their tiny star. They are so different from Earth. That life as we know it could be possible.
Then we must realize. That. Those red dwarf stars and their planets are so weird.
That we cannot make any common models for those planets. Or. Maybe. We should say that the Sun is so weird. That we cannot make models for the most common star type in the universe. So, the locked planets are a more common planet type in the habitable zone. Barnard star. It was the first candidate star. That reseachers predicted. To host exoplanets.
The proper motion of that star is wobbling. That means that astronomers have believed Barnard’s Star could host a solar system since the 1960s. First reseachers thought that there was some kind of. Super-Earth. Orbiting that red dwarf. But then those suspicions vanished. Until. Those four super-Earths were found in 2025.
“Artist's conception of a planet in orbit around a red dwarf” (Wikipedia, Barnard’s Star)
“Barnard's Star has been subject to multiple claims of planets that were later disproven. From the early 1960s to the early 1970s, Peter van de Kamp argued that planets orbited Barnard's Star. His specific claims of large gas giants were refuted in the mid-1970s after much debate. In November 2018, a candidate super-Earth planetary companion was reported to orbit Barnard's Star. It was believed to have a minimum mass of 3.2 M🜨 and orbit at 0.4 AU. However, work presented in July 2021 refuted the existence of this planet” (Wikipedia, Barnard’s Star)
We must realize. That van der Kamp. He was a trained astronomer. Who had the right to believe in the existence. Van der Kamp was wrong about those planets’ size. Confirmed planets were small sub-Earths. But those planets are very close to Barnard’s Star. That means friction from that star’s atmosphere should slow those planets’ speed. That means those planets could fall to that red dwarf. So could there be some “favorable Jupiter” outside that solar system? The favorable Jupiter means a massive object that stabilizes those planets’ trajectory. That object’s distance depends on its mass.
So, if the mass of “favorable Jupiter” is two times Jupiter's. That means it orbits at a distance of two times Jupiter's distance. This distance also depends on the mass of the central star. This means that if the favorable Jupiter is at a very long distance from its star. That means its temperature is very low. And the red dwarf’s radiation impacts that hypothetical planet. It's very weak. Its temperature would be just higher. Than. absolute zero, or zero kelvin.
The existence of those exoplanets was confirmed in 2025. Those four planets are larger than Mars. But smaller than Venus. There is a lot of magnesium in that solar system. When. We say something about a planet’s possible lifeforms. And how habitable those planets really are. We must say that if some planet seems hostile to humans. That planet is not hostile to creatures. That formed there. Even the most hellish planet is paradise for its endemic species. And here I don’t mean intelligent species.
https://scitechdaily.com/these-nearby-alien-planets-are-stranger-and-more-hostile-than-expected/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard%27s_Star
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnard's_Star_b
2024 article. Published just before those exoplanets were found.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/discovery-of-a-tiny-exoplanet-sheds-new-light-on-a-very-old-star/
2018 article: Interesting information about the search for Barnard B.
https://www.astronomy.com/science/the-complicated-history-of-planets-around-barnards-star/





















