Barnard’s Star, one of the oldest stars in our cosmic neighborhood, is often overshadowed by its famous neighbors in the Alpha Centauri system. Yet, this dim red dwarf is a record holder: it’s the closest single star to our Sun. For decades, astronomers have gazed at Barnard’s Star, speculating whether it harbored planets, only to have their theories repeatedly disproven—until now.

Astronomers have finally confirmed a planet around Barnard’s Star, a sub-Earth exoplanet named Barnard b. With a mass around half that of Venus, Barnard b is one of the lowest-mass exoplanets known, and one of the very few with a mass smaller than Earth.

But in an era where we’ve cataloged over 5,000 exoplanets, why does the discovery of Barnard b still matter? What secrets could Barnard b hold about the formation of low-mass planets? Finally, and most importantly, could this discovery open a new chapter in our search for Earth-like worlds?

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